Dhaka, Dec. 20 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there would be no further wars after Ukraine if Western countries treat Russia with respect and acknowledge its security interests, dismissing claims that Moscow plans to attack Europe as "nonsense".

Speaking during his annual televised "Direct Line" question-and-answer marathon on Friday, Putin told the BBC that Russia would not launch any new military operations if the West respected Russian interests and stopped what he described as deception over Nato's eastward expansion. He again accused Western leaders of breaking promises made to the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, a claim previously denied by the late Mikhail Gorbachev.

Putin said Russia was ready to work with ...