“What would happen if we put missiles in Mexico?” Asks Putin amid tensions with the United States

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, ensures that, in the tensions with the United States and Europe over the versions that he is preparing an invasion in Ukraine, not that one Russia the country whose turn it is to give guarantees to calm the situation. And, alluding to the possibility of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) extending to the east, he questioned: “What would happen if we put missiles in Canada, or Mexico?

At his marathon annual press conference last Thursday, Putin accused the West of “brazenly misleading and conning” Moscow by making verbal promises in the 1990s not to expand NATO’s presence in the east and then enlarge it to incorporate. countries of the former Soviet bloc in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Baltic republics.

On fears over a surge in Russian troops near Ukraine, which has stoked fears of a possible invasion, and US President Joe Biden’s warning that Moscow will face “serious consequences” if it attacks Kiev, Putin declined to have plans to attack, but insisted that NATO expansion and weapons deployment in Ukraine are unacceptable, a “red line.”

Asked whether he can offer guarantees that Russia will not invade Ukraine, Putin exploded: “It is you who must give us guarantees and give them immediately, now and not get into a chatter about it that goes on for decades,” he said.

“Are we the ones placing missiles near the borders of the United States?” Putin asked. “No, it is the United States that is coming to our house with its missiles. They are in advance on the threshold of our home. Is it excessive to demand that offensive systems are not placed near our home?

And then he launched: “How would the Americans respond if we put our missiles on the borders of the United States with Canada or Mexico? Before, perhaps, there were no border problems between them? Who owned California and Texas? Have they forgotten? Well, it is a conflict of the past and it is already resolved. Nobody talks about it like they talk about Crimea today ”.

Days ago, Russia delivered a proposal according to which NATO agrees not to incorporate Ukraine or other former Soviet republics, and to reverse the alliance’s military deployment in Central and Eastern Europe.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Riabkov told the Tass news agency on January 10 that the United States and Russia will hold negotiations on Ukraine and security fears in Europe, although he clarified that he does not expect a meeting to be reached. agreement “in a single day”.