West being too superficial about Russia's warnings against crossing red lines - Putin

MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - The West is heating up the situation in its relations with Russia and very superficially treating its warnings against crossing certain red lines, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"Of course, we understand that our partners are quite peculiar and, putting it mildly, treat all of our warnings and remarks on red lines too superficially," Putin said at an expanded board meeting of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

"Our Western partners are heating up the situation by supplying Kyiv with modern lethal weapons and conducting provocative military maneuvers in the Black Sea, and not only there, but also in other regions close to our borders," he said.

"We've been regularly voicing our concerns on this account and speaking of red lines," he said.

While Russia's relations with its Western partners, including the U.S., "used to be simply unique, and the level of relations was all but allied, our concerns and warnings about NATO's enlargement east were absolutely ignored," he said.

It's worth seeing where NATO's military infrastructure is now, Putin said. "Right near our borders. And they have even deployed missile defense systems in Romania and Poland, which can be easily used, considering that Mk-41 launchers, attack systems, are stationed there. Changing the software is a matter of minutes," he said.