Putin Mocks the US: “Is the United States a Banana Republic?”
For other countries, the alleged threat is profitable to get approval for their new defense budgets, commented Russian President Vladimir Putin to claims that Russia poses a danger to other countries.
The Russian president was downplaying the message from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, that the threat from the East is increasing, reports Nettavisen.
– Mysterious threats are increasingly presented as the infamous military threat from Russia. The problem is that Russia is not going to attack anyone, Putin said during a meeting with social scientists in Sochi on Thursday.
He also thinks it’s hysterical to believe that Russia has tried to influence the upcoming United States presidential election by hacking US institutions.
– The series of mysterious, fictional problems, including hysteria – I can not find any other word for it – that have broken out in the US in terms of Russia’s influence on the current presidential election, Putin said.
US intelligence and President Barack Obama’s administration, earlier in October came out saying that Russia is behind the hacking, including the Democratic Party. They accused the authorities in Moscow of using the leaks, including those published by WikiLeaks, as an attempt to influence the presidential election.
– Does anyone really believe that Russia in any way affects the American people’s choice, asked the Russian President rhetorically.
And then he got the audience to laugh with this comment:
– Is the United States some kind of banana republic?
The US has said that it will retaliate the hacking.
