$XRP MOSCOW, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that European claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union are wrong and that the allegations that Putin plans to invade a member of the Western military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), are complete nonsense.

Putin described the collapse of the Soviet Union in 2005 as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, because tens of millions of Russians were impoverished and Russia itself faced the threat of disintegration.

Opponents say that Putin's Russia is deteriorating into a potent mix of absurdity and repression that is comparable to Leonid Brezhnev's era in the Soviet Union. Western leaders say that if Putin wins the war in Ukraine, he will one day attack NATO.

Putin has repeatedly denied having plans to attack NATO and said that such a move would be foolish for Russia, given NATO's conventional military superiority over Russia.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that Putin wants to bring back the "old Soviet Union" and that Europe must defend itself against what he said were clear Russian intentions, as established, according to him, in Russian state doctrines, to attack NATO.

"This is not true," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Merz's remarks. "Vladimir Putin does not want to restore the USSR because that is impossible, and he has said this several times."$ETH #BinanceBlockchainWeek