Moscow, July 28 (RHC)-- Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the United States for the current round of arms race in the world. "This new spiral of the arms race was prompted by the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty,” Putin said in an interview with Swiss broadcaster RTS on Monday.

On December 13, 2001, Washington withdrew from the treaty, which had been signed in 1972 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile systems used in defending areas against ballistic missile-delivered nuclear weapons. Putin said: "This treaty was a cornerstone of the entire system of international security."

According to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a leading think-tank focusing on international security, Washington in 2014 spent USD 581 billion, the highest amount of military expenditure last year.

Putin also said that U.S. officials should rethink their policies and stop “acting in a way ‘who-in-not-with-us-is-against-us.’” He added: "Undoubtedly, the United States is a great power. But it doesn’t mean that the current U.S. authorities have any right to move around the world, seizing people and taking them to their prisons.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the Russian president said that Moscow is ready to negotiate with the U.S. and Europe on a host of issues including the situation in Ukraine. He said: “Russia takes no interest in seeking confrontation with other countries. But sometimes we simply have to defend our interests. And we will undoubtedly do it, but not in a confrontational manner but thorough finding compromises and mutually acceptable solutions.”

The U.S. and its European allies have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, accusing Moscow of being involved in the Ukrainian conflict that broke out last year. Russia has repeatedly strongly denied the accusation and has imposed retaliatory sanctions against many Western countries.