Russia Was Forced to Take Steps to Defend Itself amid Western Threats — Security Council

The US believes that it has the right to spread democracy around the world, imposing its own understanding of this form of political power, using any methods for this, including military ones, disregarding the principles of international law, customs, culture and security of other peoples

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev Yelena Afonina/TASS

© Yelena Afonina/TASS

GROZNY, March 15. /TASS/. Russia was forced to take preemptive measures to defend itself in the conditions of threats from the West, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said at a meeting on national security in the North Caucasus Federal District.

"In these conditions we were forced to take preemptive measures to ensure the security of Russia and its citizens," the official said.

"The US believes that it has the right to spread democracy around the world, imposing its own understanding of this form of political power, using any methods for this, including military ones, disregarding the principles of international law, customs, culture and security of other peoples," he said. "We know all too well what this led to in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria."

"Russia has already faced similar threats here, in the North Caucasus, at the end of the last and the beginning of this century," Patrushev said. "But we have learned our lessons from the aggression that was unleashed against us while being instigated by the collective West using international terrorist organizations."

Russia, he said, has managed to overcome all the problems created from outside, including through the resilience of the peoples of the North Caucasus, "who often at the cost of their lives made a significant contribution to the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state."

"And after everything that happened in the North Caucasus, that is happening in Ukraine, near our borders in Europe, we continue to be told that there’s nothing that’s threatening Russia," Patrushev said. "How can we trust those who constantly deceive us, continue to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, create secret biological laboratories on its territory and encourage neo-Nazis?"

Following a decision by the president of Russia, a special military operation has been started that aims primarily to protect people who have been subjected to "abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime" for eight years, as well as to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, Patrushev said.