Vladimir Putin delivers his annual address this morning in Moscow (Picture: Reuters)
Vladimir Putin has made a direct threat to nuke the west saying that Russia’s nuclear weapons are ready.
The Russian President said during his State of the Nation Address: ‘They, Nato and America, are active in other parts of the world, of course, and they continue to lie there, to deceive.
‘They are preparing to strike our territory and, using the best possible forces, the most effective forces to do so.
‘But we remember the fate of those who try to invade our territory and of course their fate will be much more tragic than anything we could face.
‘They have to understand that we also have weapons, weapons that can defeat them on their own territory.
‘Of course all this is very dangerous, because it could actually trigger the use of nuclear weapons. Do they not understand that?’
Putin has been speaking to an audience of top officials and lawmakers during the live nationwide televised speech.
He also said there will be ‘tragic’ consequences if the West decides to send troops to Ukraine.
The speech is a chance for Putin to highlight Russia’s foreign and domestic policies (Picture: Reuters)
He warned: ‘They need to understand we too have weapons that can strike targets on their territory.’
Putin highlighted how Russians have been victims of so called ‘Russophobia’.
‘Without a sovereign, strong Russia there can be no stable world order’, he added.
The Russian President also turned his attention towards the US and said Russia put forward a proposal for a nuclear agreement between the two countries, but the US ‘torpedoed’ it.
He said the US is only ever interested in negotiating with Russia when it suits them and accused the country of wanting to defeat Russia and ‘drag us into an arms race’.
His annual address comes just weeks before the Russian Presidential Election that he’s all but certain to win.
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He is running as an independent candidate in the March 15-17 election and will rely on his tight control over Russia that he has established during his 24 year presidency.
Putin faces opposition from three other Kremlin-backed candidates but many critics who wanted to challenge him have either been imprisoned or killed.
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s best known opposition leader, died suddenly in an Arctic prison colony earlier this month.
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