Putin Hits Back At Germany’s Merz: ‘Stoking Hysteria’ With ‘Unfounded Nonsense’

President Vladimir Putin while in China vehemently denounced and condemned Western assertions that Russia seeks to expand its special military operation into other European states. He described such statements and assumptions coming out of European officials as either a provocation or a sign of utter incompetence. He said this at a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Beijing on Tuesday.

“They are constantly stoking hysteria that Russia is allegedly nurturing plans to attack Europe. I think that it is clear for same people that this is either a provocation or a sign of utter incompetence,” Putin said, as translated in TASS. He appeared to be directly responding to recent words of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

“Any sane person clearly realizes that Russia has never had, does not have, and will never have any intention to attack anyone,” he added.

The Russian leader reiterated that Russia only seeks to protect its legitimate security interests in Ukraine, and that the conflict started with the West and NATO’s own behavior. “As for ‘Russia’s aggressive plans regarding Europe,’ I’d like to emphasize once again that this is unfounded nonsense,” Putin emphasized.

His words come as hawkish European leaders continue to speak in terms of Cold War-era domino theory, with the assumption that Russia aims to take over European countries one by one.

This is exactly how Chancellor Merz sounded in telling German public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday that Ukraine has to be defended, and not compromise, or else Germany could be next to be at risk of Russian invasion. He also said on this basis that the Ukraine war is likely to drag on with no end in sight.

While he described he hasn’t lost hope of a Trump-brokered ceasefire – he said he still “harbors no illusions” and that backing Ukraine’s defense remains an “absolute priority”.

“We are trying to end it as quickly as possible. But certainly not at the price of Ukraine’s capitulation. You could end the war tomorrow if Ukraine surrendered and lost its independence,” Merz said.

“Then the next country would be at risk the day after tomorrow. And the day after that, it would be us. That is not an option,” the German chancellor stated.

Putin in Beijing had some further interesting commentary on Ukraine and its security:

In his remarks, Putin said that that Moscow had never opposed Ukraine’s potential membership of the European Union, and dismissed claims that Moscow was somehow planning to attack Europe.

He argued, in comments reported by Reuters, that with Nato expanding eastwards, the alliance wanted to absorb the entire post-Soviet space, and Russia simply had to defend its interests. He also repeated that Ukrainian membership of Nato would have been unacceptable to Russia.

Fico has been receiving severe pushback from other EU countries for attending events in China hosted by President Xi.

Fico tells Putin an ancient Chinese parable.

“As EU and NATO members were talked against coming here. But many in the EU are like the frog in a well. They sit at the bottom, and they cannot see what is happening in the world.

So I would like to say openly – we are interested in… pic.twitter.com/rPG9vUHld9

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) September 2, 2025

The Slovak PM is expected to attend China’s big military parade on Wednesday. Putin told him Tuesday that Russia “highly values the independent foreign policy that you and your team, your government, are pursuing.”

Meanwhile, on the battlefield Russian forces continue to make gains in the east, with Moscow’s Defense Ministry announcing Tuesday the capture of the village of Fedorivka in Donetsk region.