Putin: Thanks to Trump, the US and Russia are beginning to align

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia plans to reduce its military spending starting next year, in contrast to NATO’s recent pledge to increase defence expenditures over the next decade.

Earlier this week, NATO members agreed to raise their collective defence spending target to 5% of GDP within 10 years, citing the ongoing threat from Russia and a need to reinforce both civil and military resilience.

Responding to the announcement for the first time during a press conference in Minsk, Putin said that NATO’s increased spending would mostly benefit the U.S. military-industrial sector.

“This is their business, not ours. Their money will go to purchases from the U.S. and to support their defence industry,” Putin remarked.

“But here’s the key point: We are planning to cut defence spending. Not just next year, but over the next three years. That’s our trajectory.”

He added that no final agreement had been reached yet between Russia’s defence, finance, and economy ministries, but that the overall direction was agreed upon.

“Meanwhile, Europe is thinking about how to increase its defence budget. So who’s actually preparing for aggression—us or them?” Putin asked.

These statements are likely to be met with deep scepticism in the West, where Russia’s military budget has surged dramatically since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The war shows no signs of de-escalation, with intensified combat in recent weeks and no breakthrough in peace talks or a lasting ceasefire.

Putin acknowledged former U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the conflict.

“He recently said that resolving the situation is more difficult than it looks from the outside—and that’s true,” Putin said.

Trump said this week that he believes Putin wants to settle the war, but officials in Kyiv and many European capitals reject that idea, viewing the Russian president as determined to seize more Ukrainian territory.