Russia not going to fight with anyone: Putin

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - President Vladimir Putin said Russia is not going to fight with anyone, the TASS news agency reported on Monday.

And Moscow, at the same time, is working to prevent other countries from engaging in an armed conflict with Russia, Putin told the Russian state-run TASS.

"We are not going to fight against anyone. We are going to create conditions so that nobody wants to fight against us," he said.

His remarks came in the sixth series of an interview for the project titled 20 Questions with Vladimir Putin.

Russia ranks seventh in the world by the defense expenditures, after the U.S., China, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, France and Japan, Putin recalled, adding that its military expenses are falling.

The president said Russia created offensive attack systems that are not available in the world, so others are chasing it for a "catch-up".

"This is a unique situation, this has never happened before," he said, referring to the newly created hypersonic attack systems, including intercontinental missiles.

He also recalled that number of forces in the Russia army fell from 1.3 to 1 million soldiers, while the share of the modern equipment rose to 70% from 6.

20 Questions with Vladimir Putin is a TASS project of interviews divided into 20 topics, symbolizing 20 years of Putin in power, with gradual publication.

The first series was published on Feb. 20 and the last is scheduled for March 25.