On November 12, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow saw Western countries rearming to prepare for the possibility of confrontation with Russia and was fully ready for this scenario.
Peskov expressed his agreement with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who warned earlier in the week that Europe's rapid industrialization would make a direct conflict between Russia and Western countries increasingly feasible.
There are clear war psychology in the West, and that is terrible, Peskov said, asserting that Russia had always known that this risk existed and had taken all necessary measures in advance to protect the interests and national security.
The European Union's (EU) rearmament, with hundreds of billions of euros expected to be spent, is being justified under the cover of the threat from Russia. However, Moscow insists the allegations are fake, aimed at distracting public opinion from the bloc's economic and social uncertainties.
They are forcing themselves to increase their military budgets even more, Peskov said, pointing to Poland having increased defense spending to nearly 5% of GDP, and other countries are also following this path, even though it is hurting their own economies.
Moscow sees NATO's continued expansion to the East and the West's confrontation policies as the root cause of the conflict in Ukraine and the current security crisis in Europe.
The US-led military bloc pledged to receive Ukraine at the Bucharest Summit in 2008. After the Western-backed coup in 2014, Ukraine has pursued a public policy against Russia.
