(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Friday of colonial vanity and making an attempt to crush his nation with “silly” sanctions that amounted to an financial “blitzkrieg”.
Addressing the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a showcase occasion this yr being held with nearly no Western participation, he informed Russia’s political and financial elite:
“We are robust individuals and may deal with any problem. Like our ancestors, we’ll resolve any downside, all the thousand-year historical past of our nation speaks of this.”
Putin drew applause from the corridor when he reaffirmed his willpower to proceed the “particular army operation” in Ukraine that has unleashed what he mentioned was an “unprecedented” barrage of Western financial sanctions.
He mentioned the primary goal of the incursion was to defend “our” individuals within the largely Russian-speaking Donbas area of japanese Ukraine – a justification that Kyiv and the West dismiss as a baseless pretext for a struggle that has already led to the occupation of elements of southern Ukraine far past the Donbas.
Putin mentioned the Russian troopers within the Donbas have been additionally combating to defend Russia’s personal “rights to safe growth”.
“The West has basically refused to fulfil its earlier obligations, it turned out to be merely not possible to succeed in any new agreements with it,” Putin mentioned.
“In the present scenario, in opposition to a backdrop of accelerating dangers for us and threats, Russia’s resolution to conduct a particular army operation was pressured – tough, after all, however pressured and obligatory.”
Putin mentioned the United States thought of itself “God’s emissary on Earth”, and that Western sanctions have been based on a false premise that Russia had no financial sovereignty.
Washington and its allies have been making an attempt to “change the course of historical past”, he mentioned, to weaken a sovereign, impartial Russia.
Shortly earlier than Putin was as a consequence of start talking, the Kremlin introduced {that a} “denial of service” cyber assault had disabled the accreditation and admission techniques of the convention, forcing him to delay the scheduled begin of his speech by an hour.
(Reporting by Reuters; enhancing by Philippa Fletcher)
