The day before, Putin said NATO military expansion close to Russia's borders and any deployment of missile systems in Ukraine would be crossing a "red line."
Asked about Putin's remarks, Blinken said they would be "a bad joke if things weren't so serious."Referring to NATO, Blinken said that "as a defensive alliance, we're not a threat to Russia."That is the purpose of the Alliance."
"The idea that Ukraine represents a threat to Russia, or for that matter that NATO represents a threat to Russia, it is profoundly wrong and misguided," Blinken added.Stoltenberg noted to CNN that after the first time Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO increased its defenses "with combat-ready battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance, in the Baltic countries, in Latvia ...