Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (L) looks at President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with the BRICS countries' senior officials in charge of security matters at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 26, 2015. REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN
Reuters: Putin's top security adviser says U.S. is after Russia's minerals
The head of Russia's Security Council said in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday that the United States wanted a weakened Russia so as to gain access to its vast mineral resources.
The attack on the United States by Nikolai Patrushev came against a background of anti-Western rhetoric by Moscow following imposition of sanctions by Washington and the European Union over Moscow's role in Ukraine's crisis.
In an interview with BBC Panorama aired on Monday night, Adam Szubin, acting U.S. Treasury secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of amassing secret wealth by corrupt practices over "many, many years".
"The United States' leadership has set a goal of global dominance," Patrushev, a former head of Russia's FSB state security service and a long-standing ally of Putin, told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper in an interview on its website.
"They don't need a strong Russia. On the contrary, they need to weaken our country as much as possible. To achieve this goal, the Russian Federation's disintegration is not ruled out as well," Patrushev said.
"This will open access to the richest resources for the United States, which believes that Russia possesses them undeservingly."
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Update #1: US Could Be Attempting to Weaken Russia to Access Rich Resources (Sputnik)
Update #2: U.S. Wants Russia Collapse to Gain Its Resources - Security Council Head (Moscow Times).
WNU Editor: Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev rarely says anything publicly ... that is why these remarks are a surprise. But everyone knows that the U.S. cannot just walk in and grab Russia's resources .... it just does not work that way. My guess is that he is "peeved-off" with yesterday's US Treasury accusations that Putin is corrupt .... because if Putin is corrupt it would also then mean that his inner circle is also corrupt .... including one Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.