president Vladimir Putin Russia warned on Wednesday that it could provide other countries with long-range weapons for use against Western targets in response to the NATO Ally Allowed Ukraine Use weapons to attack Russian territory.
Putin also reiterated that Moscow is prepared to use nuclear weapons if it believes its sovereignty is threatened.
Responding to questions from international journalists, he said the latest Western actions would further undermine international security and could lead to “very serious problems,” something that has become extremely rare since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.
Putin added: “This would mark their direct participation in the war against the Russian Federation, and we reserve the right to act in the same way.”
The United States and Germany recently authorized Ukraine to use the long-range weapons they provided to Kiev to attack some targets on Russian territory.
Ukraine has used U.S. weapons to attack inside Russia under newly approved guidelines by President Joe Biden that allow them to be used for limited purposes in defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a Western official and a U.S. senator said on Wednesday. The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive issue and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Putin said using certain weapons provided by Western countries requires those countries' military personnel to control missiles and choose targets, so he said Moscow could take “asymmetric” measures elsewhere in the world. The U.S. military said it does not control missiles or targets provided to Ukraine.
“If they think they can deliver such weapons to war zones to attack our territory and cause us trouble, then why don't we have the right to provide similar weapons to certain parts of the world to attack sensitive facilities in countries that are doing the same thing to Russia?” he said.
“We will consider it,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
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Asked whether Russia would use nuclear weapons, Putin said the conditions for using the arsenal were clearly spelled out in Moscow's security doctrine.
“For some reason, people in the West believe that Russia will never use it,” he said.
“Look at what’s written there,” he said of Russia’s nuclear doctrine. “If anyone’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we believe we may use all means at our disposal.”
Putin said even Russia's battlefield nuclear weapons are much more powerful than those the United States used against Japan in World War II.
In a conversation lasting more than three hours with senior news directors of international news agencies such as the Associated Press, Putin also said that there would be no change in Russia-U.S. relations regardless of whether Biden or Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November.
“We will work with whomever the American people elect as president,” Putin said.
“I would not, in absolute sincerity, say that we believe the trajectory of Russia in American politics is going to change after the election,” he added. “We don’t think so. We don’t think anything that serious is going to happen.”
Putin also said that Trump's felony conviction in the hush money trial last week was the result of “internal political struggle using the judicial system.”
The Russian leader was asked about a variety of subjects, but more than two years of war in Ukraine dominated the meeting.
Putin claimed the West had opportunities to end the fighting in Ukraine but had not acted. He cited a letter he said to have written to Biden saying hostilities could end in two or three months if Washington stopped supplying Kiev with weapons.
Asked about Russian military losses, Putin said no country would reveal that information during hostilities, but he did not provide details, other than claiming that Ukrainian casualties were five times higher than Russian ones.
He also said that Ukraine was holding more than 1,300 Russian soldiers and that more than 6,400 Ukrainian soldiers were being held in Russia.
The claims cannot be independently verified, and some Western countries estimate that Russia's losses are far higher than Ukraine's.
Asked by the Associated Press about the case of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Putin said the United States was “taking strong measures” to secure his release. Gershkovich was arrested more than a year ago during a reporting trip and charged with espionage. The journalist, his employer and the United States have denied the charges, with Washington declaring he was wrongfully detained.
Putin said any such releases were “not decided through the mass media” but were made in a “cautious, calm and professional manner.”
“And these decisions should certainly be made on the basis of reciprocity,” he added, alluding to potential prisoner swaps.
Putin used the St. Petersburg forum to promote Russia's development and seek investors. The meeting with journalists took place at Gazprom's new global headquarters, a needle-shaped 81-story skyscraper overlooking the Gulf of Finland.
While he has met with journalists at previous conferences, he has not answered questions from Western reporters at events in St. Petersburg since sending troops to Ukraine.
Last year, journalists from countries Russia considers unfriendly, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, were not invited, and Western officials and investors also shunned the conference after Moscow was hit with broad sanctions over Ukraine.
—Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
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