Putin claims that Russians will 'knock out teeth' of those who attack their country

Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that some of the country’s foreign foes dream about biting off pieces of the country’s vast territory as he warned that Moscow would “knock their teeth out” if they ever try. Speaking at a government meeting, Putin said, "In all times, the same thing happened: once Russia grew stronger, they found pretexts to hamper its development”. He added, “Everyone wants to bite us or bite something off us, but those who would like to do so should know that we would knock their teeth out so that they couldn’t bite. The development of our military is the guarantee of that”. 

'Russia is still too big for some'

As per Kremlin, the top priority is to modernize the country’s armed forces. Russia-West ties have sunk to post-Cold War lows over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. There have been accusations of Russian meddling in elections, hacking attacks, and other issues. Speaking about the same, Putin said that Western sanctions against Russia are continuing a longtime historic trend of containing a powerful rival. He said, “Even after we lost one-third of our potential” when former Soviet republics became independent after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, “Russia is still too big for some”. 

Putin said, “No matter what we do, no matter how we try to satisfy the appetites of those who are trying to contain us, the containment will continue because many of our opponents just don’t want such a country as Russia”. He added, “But we, citizens of the Russian Federation need it, and we will do everything to not just preserve but strengthen it”. 

He further claimed that Russia now has the most modern strategic nuclear forces compared to other nuclear powers. The military has said that the Avangard is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound. Also, it is capable of making sharp maneuvers on its way to target to dodge the enemy’s missile shield.

(Image Credits: AP)