Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday against countries flouting international law by using force to achieve their own interests, news agency Interfax reported. "We are encountering a dangerous disdain for international law, ambitions to use military force to achieve personal interests," Putin said, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to the United States.
"And all this while the world's stability is being seriously threatened by terrorism, extremism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction," Putin said during remarks in honor of Friday's Defenders of the Fatherland Day holiday.
The Russian president's comments came less than two weeks after he made a full-frontal assault on US foreign policy in a speech in Munich, saying the United States had "overstepped its borders in all spheres" by pursuing a unipolar, Washington-centered world.
The speech and a feud over US plans to place elements of a missile defence system in central Europe have complicated already fraught relations between Moscow and Washington.
Putin went on to say Russia would seek military cooperation with new partners.
"Russian military potential remains an important part of the system of international security, and we will expand the horizons of our cooperation with foreign countries… not only with traditional allies, but with new partners," Putin said, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
