LONDON (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday launched a virulent charge against the West, which he accused of wanting to dismember Russia and dominate the world, and assured that the current situation would unmask “traitors” in the world. within a Russian society which needs to be “purified”.
If the West, which has imposed heavy sanctions on Moscow, thinks that Russia will back down, it is because it does not understand Russia, said Vladimir Putin on the 21st day of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine.
“Behind the hypocritical words and actions the West is taking today are hostile geopolitical goals. They just don’t want a strong, sovereign Russia,” he said.
Russia is ready to discuss a neutral status for Ukraine in the ongoing negotiations between the two countries but it will achieve the objectives of its military intervention, which “is going as planned”, continued the Russian president in an intervention before his ministers broadcast on state television.
Russia presents its military offensive in Ukraine as a “special operation” intended to guarantee its own security.
Western sanctions against Russia will only strengthen it, insisted Vladimir Putin.
“The West doesn’t even try to hide the fact that its goal is to harm the entire Russian economy, every Russian,” he said.
“Of course they (Westerners) will try to bet on the notorious fifth column, on the traitors – on those who earn their money here, but who live elsewhere. Who live not in a geographical sense, but in their heads, with their menial ideas,” continued the Russian president.
“The West wants to divide our society (…) to provoke a civil war in Russia and to use its fifth column to try to achieve its objective. And there is an objective: the destruction of Russia”, a- he assured.
This goal will not be achieved, promised Vladimir Putin.
“Any people, and especially the Russian people, are able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors, and spit the latter out like a midge that accidentally landed in their mouths,” he threatened.
“I am convinced that this natural and necessary purification of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, our cohesion and our ability to meet any challenge,” concluded the Russian president.
(Editing by Reuters, written by Mark Trevelyan, French version Bertrand Boucey and Tangi Salaün, editing by Jean-Michel Bélot)