Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that other countries should not have the illusion that they can attain military superiority over Russia, Interfax reported yesterday.

“No one should have the illusion that they can gain military superiority over Russia, put any kind of pressure on it. We will always have an adequate answer for any such adventures,” he was quoted as saying in an address dedicated to the Defenders’ of the Fatherland Day holiday.

No one should have the illusion that they can gain military superiority over Russia

Meanwhile more than two-thirds of Russians believe other countries pose a military threat to their nation’s security and more Russians now believe in the likelihood of war than at any time this century, a research group said yesterday.

The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre said 68 per cent of respondents to an opinion poll believed other countries pose a threat to Russia’s security. The centre also said an index measuring how much people believe in the possibility of the threat of war stood at its highest level since 1999.

Russian state-owned and Kremlin-friendly media have portrayed fighting in neighbouring east Ukraine as a conflict spurred by the West and have often drawn attention to the presence of foreign fighters.

President Vladimir Putin, who has taken a broadly anti-Western stance during the crisis, has said the conflict is being fought by proxies of Nato to “contain” Russia.

Senior Western officials this week accused Russia of redrawing the map of Europe by force and posing a threat to Baltic states.