OREANDA-NEWS. Russia will toughly respond to attempts to encroach on its territory, as President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Victory organizing committee.

"Everyone is trying to bite us or to bite off something from us - but they should know that we will knock out everyone's teeth so that they cannot bite, and the guarantee of this is the development of the armed forces," he said.

Putin stressed that Russia is not following the path of militarizing the economy. The President recalled that three trillion rubles, or $ 42 billion at the current exchange rate, were allocated for defense this year, while US military spending, as he noted, "is over 770 billion."

The Russian leader added: “If in absolute terms, then Russia is somewhere in the top ten, and on the last lines in the top ten. Well, even countries like Japan, and then a little, but still spend more on national defense than Russia, in spite of the fact that according to their constitution they officially have no army, as it seems ".

According to him, as soon as a country becomes stronger, its opponents immediately find reasons to try to limit its development. As Putin said on Thursday at a meeting of the Victory organizing committee: "The same thing happens at all times: as soon as Russia becomes stronger, there are immediately reasons to restrict its development. As one of our emperors said," everyone is afraid of our enormity ".