Russian President Vladimir Putin swiped back yesterday at US President Donald Trump for calling Russia a “paper tiger”, suggesting Nato might be one and warning the US that if it supplied Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine it would trigger a dangerous new escalation.
Putin, speaking at the Valdai Discussion Group in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said that Russian forces were advancing along the entire front in Ukraine and that almost all of the US-led Nato alliance was now fighting against Russia.
Trump, who had previously said Kyiv should give up land to make peace with Moscow, reversed his rhetoric sharply last week, saying he thought Ukraine could win back all territory from Russia, and labelling Moscow a “paper tiger”. He repeated the line this week.
“A paper tiger. What follows then? Go and deal with this paper tiger,” Putin said. “Well if we are fighting with the entire Nato bloc, we are moving, advancing, and we feel confident, and we are a ‘paper tiger’, then what is Nato itself?”
Putin poured irony on European claims that Russian drones had invaded Nato airspace, quipping that he promised he would not do it again in Denmark and that he did not have drones that could fly to Lisbon.
Nato members, he said, were providing Ukraine with intelligence, weapons and training, and whipping up what he cast as hysteria about alleged plans of Russia to attack a Nato member, which he dismissed as “impossible to believe”.
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