MOSCOW. July 7 (Interfax-AVN) - President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is well able to provide for its own security.
"I'm sure we will be able to effectively provide for our defense capacity and security," Putin said in an Internet conference on Thursday.
"We were not the first to build the atom bomb, we have never used weapons of mass destruction. However, we know that human history has seen all this," Putin stressed.
"As long as other nations possess corresponding offensive weapons, this country has to attend to this issue with necessary attention and allocate to this end necessary funding." He said that Russian defensive spending was just 4% of U.S. spending.
He stressed that Russia will solve security problems "very accurately." "We will be looking for asymmetrical responses to any challenges bearing in mind the high level of development of the science of defense, the high personnel potential," he said.
When asked who Russia considers to be its enemies, Putin said: "We, together with the militarily and economically developed nations, want to number only terrorists and drug lords among our enemies."