“Our Armed Forces are not threatening anybody,” Putin said as he visited motor maker Avtodiesel in Russia’s Yaroslavl on Saturday. “I would like to stress once again, to make sure everyone hears – not only people in this hall,” he added.

“Why would we do this?” Putin said, addressing claims in the media that

Moscow may attack other countries, including its neighbors in the Baltics.“We have the biggest territory in the world like I said, everyone knows it, and we need to provide effectively security for our own country, for our own people,” he said.”Our Armed Forces are capable of doing it, and we shall continue developing them,” Putin added.

Putin notably did not comment on the earlier announcement he made calling all Russian natives abroad to return to the motherland and pull their children out school. That radical move set alarm bells ringing of a potential military attack in preparation. However, President-elect Trump’s recent announcement that he plans to withdraw the U.S army from the Nato alliance has in addition to pleasing President Putin, caused some concern among Nato and U.S officials.

This call heightened tensions and fears that Russia was preparing an attack, especially following the revelation the Russian government had built 14 million bonkers for Russian citizens in the event of a nuclear war, presumably between Russia and The West. With the U.S mounting pressure on Russia for a cease-fire in Syria, which Putin’s government are not prepared to do just yet.

However, Russia’s drilling of its military amidst tensions with the U.S, led to much speculation that the Putin’s government was preparing to attack a Nato country, causing Nato countries to panic and position it biggest military might since the cold war around Russia’s boarders.

Putin says Russia’s military isn’t threatening anybody, but Russia may have believed the tension with America could lead to the U.S striking first, and may have wanted to prepare for a pre-emptive strike against America and not a NATO country.

The reaction of Nato to those drills then made the possibility  Russia was planning to strike a Nato country feel very real. This concern could easily have spiraled into world war 3 with China, North Korea, and other countries involved as the countries took sides with their various alliances. That threat is still there in theory, with Russia’s political tension with Nato not disappeared yet. Yet, Putin’s announcement that the Russian  millitary is not threatening anybody may be a cue for Nato to cease it’s current build up its army, the biggest ever since the cold war. Nato chiefs may not be so convinced, or maybe too far into preparations of their build up to look back, but a review of the presence threat from Russia is necessary, with this recent news.

Nato’s plans to send 400,000 battle troops to the Baltic States in January 2017 is well documented. It is the biggest military build-up near Russia since the second world war. The scheduled and ongoing build up which was  borne out of necessity more than anything else will be provocative if no real threat  from Russia to the West exists. The problem here is that Nato don’t trust Putin, but President electTrump may try and be the mediator.

Speculations About Threat

All  concerns about a perceived Russian attack were speculations, but with the proliferation of nuclear weapons, nobody wanted to take a chance. Putin on Saturday, now says the Russian military is not threatening anybody.

Maybe Putin should be given the benefit of the doubt, now that President-elect Trump has won the elections, but Nato and U.S chiefs don’t think he should the Russian president should be trusted. Outspoken officials insist Putin must be made to stick to agreements to bring President Assad’s regime down in order for Syria to be stabilized. His invitation of president-elect Trump to Russia is a positive sign of progress.

Putin has seen a potential friend in Putin, and most probably feels a lot less tension with America, now that President-elect Trump has pulled off the remarkable victory in the last elections. His announcement that the Russian Millitary is not threatening anybody can be taken at face value that president Putin now foresees a better relationship with the U.S, because of President-elect Trump’s recent victory, and now wants to build bridges instead of what he previously saw as inevitable tension

Putin said Nato and other countries have conducted drills of their own in the past, but this did not make Russia nervous, but now that Russian millitary have been conducting drills,  they are getting nervous.

 However, the tension with Nato is not yet over. Perhaps Nato will feel less threatened if they view things from this perspective. Putin wants everyone to hear loud and clear that he is not threatening anybody.

 Putin affirmed that a lot had been done to make the Russian military “efficient… modern and highly effective” as part of a national program to develop the Armed Forces.

“The number of military drills has increased multiple times, including snap checks, which for some reasons from time to time worry our counterparts, let’s call them as such for now,” the Russian leader said.

,Putin added: ”the Russian military must be “compact, but highly effective. Thus we shall continue the structural reform, and we shall keep optimizing the personnel, but without any mass cuts.”

President Putin confirmed plans for the Russian military to continue ”paying special attention to IT, reconnaissance, both agent- and technology-based, communications systems, as well as modern high-tech weaponry”.

 Russia plan to spend around $650 billion on modernizing and reequipping its military until 2020.