ASHGABAT, June 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday it was no news for him to hear NATO’s statement that it has been preparing for confrontation with Russia since 2014.

"We should look upon it as a fact. The fact that they have been preparing for some active actions against us since 2014 is no news for us," he told journalists after the Caspian summit. "This is why Russia is taking resolute actions to defend its interests."

"They have been needing an external enemy for quite a long time to unite allies around them due to an alleged threat from this enemy," he said, adding that he means first of all the United States’ actions.

"Iran was not quite good for this role, Russia fitted much better. We gave them this chance to united all their allies around them at a new historic stage," Putin stated. "But there is nothing new for us. It only proves what we have always been saying: that the NATO bloc is a vestige of the past era, the era of the cold war."

The West, however, "has been saying that NATO has changed, that now it is most likely a political union," Putin recalled. "But they kept on looking for a pretext and a chance to give a new impetus to it as a military organization. Here they are doing it. There is nothing new for us about it.".