STRELNA, Russia — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that he sees no ideological grounds for a war with the United States — cold or hot — despite strained relations with Washington and the NATO alliance.
Russia’s relations with the U.S. were already at a post-Cold War low when they were further damaged by Russia’s war with U.S. ally Georgia in August. Russia has complained about what it says is a growing U.S. military presence near its borders.
But Medvedev said Wednesday that the Cold War was based on ideological differences between the Soviet Union and NATO nations.
“We do not have such ideological differences around which a new cold or any other kind of war could start,” Medvedev said after talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero outside St. Petersburg.
Medvedev said he would not “dramatize” troubled ties between Russia and NATO, and he warned that NATO needs Russia more than Russia needs NATO.
