Vladimir Putin dismisses ‘stupid’ Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war
- The president said the US considered itself ‘God’s emissary on Earth’, and the sanctions were founded on false premise that Russia had no economic sovereignty
- A speech by China’s Xi Jinping praising cooperation between the two countries underlined Putin’s contention that an era of American domination is at an end
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Friday of colonial arrogance and trying to crush his country with “stupid” sanctions that amounted to an economic “blitzkrieg”.
Addressing the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a showcase event being held this year with almost no Western participation, he returned time and again to the theme of Russia’s sovereignty in a new global order:
“We are strong people and can cope with any challenge. Like our ancestors, we will solve any problem, the entire thousand-year history of our country speaks of this.”
Putin drew applause when he reaffirmed his determination to continue the “special military operation” in Ukraine that has unleashed a barrage of Western economic sanctions.
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Russian propaganda trucks screen state news in war-torn city of Mariupol
He said the main aim was to defend “our” people in the largely Russian-speaking Donbas region of eastern Ukraine – a justification that Kyiv and the West dismiss as a baseless pretext for a campaign that has already cost thousands of lives and led to the occupation of parts of Ukraine far beyond the Donbas.