What's behind that?
"NATO and the EU interpret Russian military modernization and forward deployments as offensive," Marco Marsili, a researcher at Cà Foscari University of Venice, tells Sputnik.
But Russia views NATO enlargement, sanctions and military assistance to Ukraine as an existential threat.
Marsili warned that "deterrence logic dominates European strategic thinking today", but without parallel diplomatic de-escalation mechanisms that approach "increases the risk of miscalculation rather than reducing it."
At his end-of-year press conference on Friday, Putin insisted that Russia is ready to maintain relations with the West on the basis of parity and mutual respect.
"When Moscow speaks of 'equal terms,' it means geopolitical equality between great powers, not regulatory or normative alignment," Marsili says.
"Russia approaches international relations through a sovereigntist and civilizational lens, emphasizing power parity, spheres of influence and strategic autonomy."
But the EU's approach is different – it does not view Russia as an equal partner – and that's a core problem, the pundit says. Although the EU does not treat Russia as a colony, it does not accept it as a co-author of the European rules-based order.
"Russia is increasingly framed as a systemic rival and security challenger, rather than a partner or equal stakeholder," Marsili stresses.