Putin taunts NATO’s Rutte: You know the US doesn’t see Russia as an enemy

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday lambasted NATO chief Mark Rutte for his recent warning to prepare for a large-scale war with Russia.

“What are you even talking about? I really want to ask: Listen, what are you saying about preparing to go to war with Russia? Can you even read? Read the U.S. National Security Strategy,” Putin said, at an annual event where he responds to questions from journalists and the general public.

Rutte said last week in Berlin that NATO is Russia’s next target after Ukraine and that alliance members must shift to a “wartime mindset” and “we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great grandparents endured.”

Putin dismissed those remarks Friday as aggressive and said that if the U.S. — NATO’s traditional backbone — does not see Russia as an “enemy or target” in its new controversial security strategy, Rutte should not point NATO toward war with Russia.

Putin, for his part, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and also attacked neighboring Georgia in 2008. But that didn’t stop him from needling the transatlantic military alliance over its conflict warnings, amid the Trump administration’s posture in its new document detailing global security priorities.

“In the new strategy, Russia is not named as an enemy or a target … and the NATO secretary-general is getting ready to go to war with us. What is this? Can you even read? Why are you aiming NATO at entering in war with Russia if NATO’s main country does not see us as an enemy?” Putin blasted.

Trump’s document stops short of identifying Russia as a threat to American security. Instead, it targets traditional allies in Europe, warning that they face “civilizational erasure” in part due to migration and portraying them as obstacles to efforts aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin praised the document, asserting that it aligns with Russia’s own vision and signaling Moscow’s approval of Washington’s new direction.