© RIA Novosti/Alexei DruzhininRussian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to the paper on the eve of his visit to Italy, Putin stressed that one should not take the ongoing "Russian aggression" scaremongering in the West seriously, as a global military conflict is unimaginable in the modern world.
"I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people's fears with regard to Russia. They just want to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid," Putin said.
Certain countries could be deliberately nurturing such fears, he added, saying that hypothetically the US could need an external threat to maintain its leadership in the Atlantic community. "Iran is clearly not very scary or big enough" for this, Putin noted with irony.
Russia's President invited the journalists to compare the global military presence of Russia and the US/NATO, as well as their military spending levels. He also urged them to look at the steps each side has taken in connection with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia's military policy is "not global, offensive, or aggressive," Putin stressed, adding that Russia has "virtually no bases abroad," and the few that do exist are remnants of its Soviet past.
He explained that there were small contingents of Russian armed forces in Tajikistan on the border with Afghanistan, mainly due to the high terrorist threat in the area. There is an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, which was opened at request of the Kyrgyz authorities to deal with a terrorist threat there. Russia also has a military unit in Armenia, which was set up to help maintain stability in the region, not to counter any outside threat.
Comment: There's been no credible evidence released to suggest that China has had any involvement in the hacks, and would have nothing to gain from participation in them. However, considering the mounting tensions between the US and China over developments in the South China Sea and the Philippine President equating China's activities there to Hitler's annexing Czechoslovakia, one has to wonder if a Western intelligence agency didn't have a hand in it.