Russian President Vladimir Putin says US is trying to 'remake the whole world'
Russian president denies trying to rebuild empire and blames Ukraine crisis on West
Russian President Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the US accusing the country of endangering global security by imposing a "unilateral diktat" on the rest of the world.
In a 40-minute diatribe against the West that was reminiscent of the Cold War and underlined the depth of the rift between Moscow and the West, Putin also denied trying to rebuild the Soviet empire at the expense of Russia's neighbours. He also shifted blame for the Ukraine crisis onto the West.
"We did not start this," Putin told an informal group of experts on Russia that includes many Western specialists critical of him, warning that Washington was trying to "remake the whole world" based on its own interests.
"Statements that Russia is trying to reinstate some sort of empire, that it is encroaching on the sovereignty of its neighbours, are groundless," the former KGB spy declared in a speech at a ski resort in mountains above the Black Sea city of Sochi.
Listing a series of conflicts in which he faulted US actions, including Libya, Syria and Iraq, Putin asked whether Washington's policies had strengthened peace and democracy.
"No," he declared. "The unilateral diktat and the imposing of schemes [on others] have exactly the opposite effect."
Putin, 62, has stepped up anti-Western rhetoric since returning to the Kremlin as president in 2012, helping push up his popularity ratings since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March.
Even so, the speech was one of the most hostile Putin has delivered against the West and it appeared partly intended to show Russian voters he would stand up to the rest of the world and defend their interests.
The criticisms of a world order dominated by Washington, more than two decades after the Cold War, recalled a 2007 speech in Munich in which Putin shocked the West by lambasting Washington's "unipolar" world view.
The speech prompted many Western leaders to reassess their view of Putin.
The annual meetings of what is known as the Valdai Club have rarely featured such open, direct and tough language in their debates on Russian policy.
Critics say the meetings have become a showcase for Kremlin policy, with the session attended by Putin shown live on state television and little discussion of Russia's record on human rights and democracy.
Putin rejected criticism over the Ukraine crisis, in which Moscow has sided with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and threw the West's criticisms of Moscow back in its face.
Repeating accusations that Western governments helped pro-Western groups stage a coup that ousted a pro-Moscow president in Kiev in February, he said: "No one wanted to listen to us and no one wanted to talk to us.
"Instead of a difficult but, I underline, civilised dialogue they brought about a state coup. They pushed the country into chaos, economic and social collapse, and civil war with huge losses."
Dismissing US and European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow as a mistake, he said: "Russia will not be posturing, get offended, ask someone for anything…[it] is self-sufficient."
He made only passing references to the decline of Russia's US$2 trillion economy, which is in danger of sliding into recession as its currency tumbles along with the price of oil, its main export. But he said in a question and answer session after his speech that Russia would not burn though its gold and foreign currency reserves thoughtlessly to prop up the economy.
