MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Western countries do not need Russia as a country, this is precisely why they have been supporting separatism and terrorism, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"Even the very idea of Russia’s possible integration into that North Atlantic alliance at a stage of our, as it seemed then, cloudless relations with NATO, judging by all appearances, seemed absurd to its members," he said at a meeting with the leadership of the lower house of parliament and the leaders of parliamentary factions.

"And why? Just because they simply don’t need such a country as Russia, that’s why. This is precisely why they supported terrorism, separatism in Russia, internal destructive forces and the ‘fifth column’ in our country. They all have been receiving and receive to this day unconditional support on the part of that very collective West," he concluded.

Putin also pointed out that "the so-called collective West led by the US has been behaving exclusively aggressively with regards to Russia for decades. Our proposals on creating a system of equitable security in Europe were rejected, initiatives on joint work on the issue of anti-missile defense were declined and the warnings of the inadmissibility of NATO’s expansion, especially at the expense of the former Soviet Union republics, were ignored," the Russian leader explained.