MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would not allow itself to be drawn into what he called a new arms race.
"It is already clear that a new arms race is beingunleashed in the world," Putin said.
"We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into this," hesaid in a speech to the State Council, which gatheredministers, governors and members of parliament.
Putin has raised military spending during his eight-yearpresidency and approved large-scale military exercises, whilecriticising what he says is NATO's "muscle-flexing" on Russia'sborders and a planned U.S. missile defence shield.
"It's not our fault, we didn't start it. ... funnellingmulti-billions of dollars into developing weapons systems."
"NATO itself is expanding. It's approaching our borders.
"We drew down our bases in Cuba and in Vietnam. What did weget? New American bases in Romania, Bulgaria. A new thirdmissile defence region in Poland, where it's being built,"Putin said.
Russia's ties with NATO have been strained by concernsabout Washington's plans to station the defence shield inEurope, Moscow's suspension of a landmark arms treaty anddisagreements over the future of Kosovo.
(Reporting by Tanya Mosolova, writing by Guy Faulconbridgeand Conor Sweeney, editing by Christian Lowe)
