Humiliated Putin tries to save face as Sweden and Finland join NATO: Russian leader says countries ‘can join whatever they want’ – insists his army did NOT bomb Ukraine’s shopping center
- Putin insists he doesn’t care if neighboring countries Finland and Sweden join NATO
- But he spoke out against his “imperial ambitions” and tried to assert “supremacy”
- He also denied that his army attacked the mall in Ukraine, killing 18 civilians
- He spoke in the Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat for the VI Caspian Summit
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed that he has “no problem” with neighboring Finland and Sweden joining NATO, while simultaneously rejecting the alliance’s “imperial ambitions” and seeking to assert “supremacy”.
His comments come as NATO has formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance after Turkey dropped its opposition, while also announcing it will bolster troops on its eastern flank by nearly 4,000 compared to March of this year.
Moscow reacted furiously to the news of NATO’s expansion, saying it will be “destabilizing” for Europe.
“Ukraine and the well-being of the Ukrainian people is not the goal of the collective West and NATO, but a means of defending their own interests,” Putin told reporters in the Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat.
“The leaders of the NATO countries want… to assert their supremacy, their imperial ambitions,” he added.
Putin also denied responsibility for the rocket attack on the Kremenchuk shopping center earlier this week that killed at least 18 people, dozens of whom are still missing.
“Our military is not attacking any civilian infrastructure site. We have all the means to know what is where,” Putin told a news conference in the Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat.
The Russian autocrat attended the VI Caspian Summit of leaders from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to discuss “current issues of cooperation in the Caspian Sea.”
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed that he has “no problem” with neighboring Finland and Sweden joining NATO, while at the same time denouncing the alliance’s “imperial ambitions” and seeking to assert “supremacy”
Putin was in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan to attend the VI Caspian Summit with the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan
From left: President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, President of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the VI Caspian Summit
It was feared as many as 1,000 people were inside when it was hit. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky denounced Russia’s actions as “one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history.” Russia accuses Ukraine of carrying out the attack.
Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry, said the military fired a “precision airstrike on hangars where armaments and ammunition were stored”, and that the explosion of those weapons depots started a fire in the nearby shopping mall. was then ‘non-functioning’.
Russian denials have been met with skepticism and debunked by numerous media and open source intelligence analysts.
There’s even CCTV video showing a large rocket hitting the mall at 3:51 p.m. Monday.