Putin: Russia ‘Harmless and Squeaky Clean’ Compared to the West

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed deteriorating relations between Russia and the West in his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, describing his country as “harmless and squeaky clean.”

Putin protested that the U.S. has withdrawn from military treaties with Russia and complained of NATO expansion into the former Soviet bloc.

Putin fielded a question from the BBC on Russian responsibility for the diplomatic breakdown, saying “Now, about us being harmless and squeaky-clean. Compared to you, yes, it is a fact, we are harmless and squeaky-clean because we agreed to release from an unequivocal Soviet dictate those countries and nations that wanted to develop independently.”

“We heard your assurances that NATO won’t expand to the East, but you didn’t keep your promises,” he added, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

The Soviet Union, along with its circle of satellite states known as the Warsaw Pact, broke up in 1991. While many former Soviet Republics, especially those in the Baltic region, defiantly asserted their independence, Putin’s words implied a degree of Russian benevolence in allowing them to leave peacefully. Of the breakaway republics, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all joined NATO, entering the military alliance in 2004. Since then, former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania have all voluntarily entered the bloc.

Putin went on to highlight diplomatic moves in the West which he viewed as reasons for the riff.

“Did we withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty? It wasn’t us who did that. And we are forced to respond by creating new weapon systems that curb threats. Then our colleagues withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Was it us who withdrew? No, that was our American partners,” the Russian president railed. “Accordingly, we said that we won’t produce and deploy such weapon systems as long as American weapons don’t arrive in Europe. Yet nobody responds to this, nobody reacts.”

The United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 under President George W. Bush. Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. left the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019.

Trump further pulled the U.S. out of the Open Skies Treaty with Russia in 2020.

“Then they withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty,” Putin noted, adding that the move essentially demanded retaliatory action from Russia. “What are we supposed to do then? … Just let it be? So you, as a NATO country, will fly over us and report everything to the American partners and we will be deprived of this opportunity regarding American territory.”

Putin did not address the many direct Russian actions which have stoked tensions with the West, most notably the 2014 invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, which got Russia expelled from the G8 group. Neither did he note the American reason for leaving the Open Skies Treaty was alleged Russian noncompliance with the terms.

Further hurting Russo-Western relations is Moscow’s continued support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who has waged a brutal, years-long campaign to suppress alleged rebels, some of which have received American support.

More recently, the Russian government — and Putin himself — became the target of international outrage after dissident Alexei Navalny survived an apparent poisoning attempt using Novichok, a Russian nerve agent near synonymous with political assassinations. Navalny himself has accused Putin of personally ordering the attack.