LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the West would fail in what he called an attempt at global domination and the dismemberment of Russia.
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 taken today by the so-called collective West 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.
Hostile Western actions against Russia will only strengthen it, he insisted.
Inflation and unemployment will rise, he warned, however, in his most explicit statements yet on the impact of Western sanctions. He nevertheless promised to support families with children.
Structural changes will be necessary for the Russian economy, said Vladimir Putin, according to whom the West has used the conflict in Ukraine as a pretext to impose its sanctions.
“The West doesn’t even try to hide the fact that its goal is to harm the entire Russian economy, every Russian,” he said. (Edited by Reuters, written by Mark Trevelyan, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)
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