Russia will not get involved in another arms race - Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin ruled out a possibility to get Russia involved in a new arms race. Putin also pinned responsibility for the Ukrainian crisis on the West.

"Sometimes it seems that some people want to start another arms race. We will not get involved in this race, of course. This is absolutely out of the question. We will proceed from real forecasts of development," Putin said, Interfax reports.

In addition, Putin laid responsibility on the West for the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine and said that the current situation in Ukraine was used to revive the alliance. "A lot of new threats appear. Recently, as you know, a decision was made to build-up NATO forces in Eastern Europe. The crisis in Ukraine, which was, in fact, orchestrated by some of our Western partners, is now being used to revive this military bloc," Putin said at a meeting on state armaments program before 2025.