Putin dismisses suggestions of US war against Russia and China as nonsense

MOSCOW – Russia President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that suggestions the United States should prepare for a war against Russia and China were nonsense, and warned the West that any war against Russia would be on a whole different level from the conflict in Ukraine.

A bipartisan panel appointed by US Congress said on Thursday that Washington must prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Moscow and Beijing by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and enhancing its nuclear weapons modernisation programme.

Mr Putin,

who is to visit China this week

, said the US had stoked tensions with Beijing by building the Aukus security alliance of US, Australia and Britain and that Russia and China were not building a military alliance.

The Russian President told a Kremlin reporter in a clip published on Sunday that thoughts of war between Russia and the US were unhealthy, but that if people were making such thoughts public, they could not but cause concern to Moscow.

“I don't think these are healthy thoughts in the minds of healthy people, because to say that the United States is preparing for war with Russia, well we are all preparing for war because we follow the ancient principle: If you want peace, get ready for war,” Mr Putin said in a clip posted on Telegram.

“But we want peace,” he said. “Moreover, to fight with both Russia and China, it is nonsense. I don't think it is serious. I think they are just scaring each other.”

The deepening partnership between the rising superpower of China and Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, is one of the most intriguing geopolitical developments of recent years – and one the West is watching with anxiety.

The US casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat, while US President Joe Biden argues that this century will be defined by an existential contest with between democracies and autocracies.

Mr Putin cautioned that if the US fought against Russia, then it would be very different to the war in Ukraine that the Kremlin calls a special military operation.

“And if they want to fight with Russia then it will be a completely different war – it will not be carrying out a special military operation,” he said. “Look at the Middle East – is that a special military operation – can you compare them?”

"If we talk about a war between great nuclear powers, then it would be a completely different story. I don't think that people in their right minds can think about such a thing, but if such a thought does come to them then it can only cause us to be wary."

The US says that both Russia and China are modernising their nuclear weapon arsenals, and that China will likely have a stockpile of 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 if it continues with its current pace of nuclear build-up.

Mr Putin

controls around 5,889 nuclear warheads

as at 2023, compared with 5,244 controlled by Mr Biden, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Of those, Russia has about 1,674 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, while the US has 1,670. REUTERS