ROME, February 29. / TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not threatening anyone; on the contrary, he insists that Russia is ready for dialogue with all countries, Vito Petrocelli, president of the Italy-BRICS Institute opined in a conversation with TASS.

Commenting on the Russian president’s State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly, the expert noted that Western media interpreted Putin's speech as a threat. "It doesn't seem that way to me at all, just on the contrary. Putin insisted that Russia is ready for dialogue with all countries, ready for creating a new indivisible security border in Eurasia. Where is the threat here?" said Petrocelli, who is former head of the Italian Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

In his opinion, it is highly important that Putin explained that the West in its attempts to weaken Russia faced strong opposition and "the determination of the multi-ethnic Russian people." "The truth is that Putin made it clear that Moscow is well aware that the West is trying to drag Russia into an arms race, exhaust the country and repeat the trick it played with the USSR," the expert said. "But it is obvious that modern Russia has learned very well the lessons of the collapse of the USSR, which was one of the greatest disasters of the 20th century," he summed up.

"Now, without an ounce of shame they are declaring that Russia is allegedly intending to attack Europe," the Russian president said in his State of the Nation Address. "But, we all understand that they are simply talking utter nonsense," he stressed.

"The so-called West with its colonial manners and its habit of fomenting national conflicts all over the world, seeks not just to hold back our development. In Russia’s place they want to see a dependent, declining, dying space where they can do whatever they want," Putin said in his speech.