Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said on Tuesday that the West was trying to cleave Russia apart and aimed to wipe it from the political map of the world.
"In the face of emerging military threats, it is important for us to have such armed forces and special services so that Russia's adversaries would not even think they could fight us," Patrushev told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper.
