Russia says NATO needs to demonise it to justify 5% defence spending target
MOSCOW, June 24 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that NATO was on a path of rampant militarisation and bent on portraying Russia as a "fiend of hell" in order to justify committing to a big increase in member states' defence spending.
Leaders of NATO, which is kicking off a two-summit in the Netherlands, have said Russia could attack a NATO state in the next few years unless it is stopped from over-running Ukraine.
Russia denies any plan to attack NATO, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "largely a wasted effort" to assure the alliance of this because it was determined to demonise Russia.
"It is an alliance created for confrontation... It is not an instrument of peace and stability," he said, noting NATO's intention to get members to commit to spending 5% of their GDP on defence, as demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump.
"The alliance is confidently moving along the path of rampant militarisation," Peskov said. In order to push through the 5% target, it was necessary for NATO to conjure up a demonic threat, he added.
"To do this, you need to draw a picture of a fiend of hell, a monster. And the point of view of these NATO functionaries, our country is the one best suited for the role of the monster."
NATO says its view of Russia is clear-eyed and based on the evidence of the war that Moscow has waged in Ukraine since February 2022.
Its summit this week is intended to signal to Putin that NATO is united, despite Trump's previous criticism of the alliance, and determined to expand and upgrade its defences to deter any attack from Moscow.
In a separate speech on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of moving beyond its traditional area of responsibility in an attempt to gain a foothold in the Middle East, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, the Arctic and the Asia-Pacific region.
He said Russia-China relations were an "important stabiliser" in Euro-Asian security.
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