A Kremlin spokesperson said that Putin’s harsh statement toward NATO members does not mean Moscow is against negotiating a nuclear pact with Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has a straightforward message for Western leaders as nuclear tensions continue to escalate between Moscow and Washington, D.C.
„We have more [nuclear] weapons than NATO countries,“ Putin said during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday. „They know about it, and they keep nudging us to start negotiations to decrease it. Screw them, you know, as people say.“
Putin’s comments were translated to English by Anton Gerashchenko, former deputy minister of internal affairs for Ukraine, on Twitter. Other translations of the statement quote Putin as saying, „F*** them.“
The harsh words arrived a few minutes after Putin announced that Russia had officially moved some tactical nuclear warheads to Belarus as previously promised to Belarusian President and Kremlin ally Alexander Lukashenko.
