June 23 — At the Kremlin, President Putin accused Western states of inflating
the Russian military threat, saying they openly discuss preparing to go to war
with Russia and are boosting military budgets and offensive capabilities to
justify large defense spending and aggressive militarization. He said Russia is
prepared to respond rapidly and appropriately to any external or internal
threat, and warned that while Western states have not yet launched actions from
their territories against Russia, they understand such moves would trigger
retaliatory strikes.
