Russian President Vladimir Putin has blasted ‘stupid’ Western sanctions against his country and said that the United States acts as if it is “sent by God to Earth with their sacred interests”
Putin said attempts to crush his country with “mad and thoughtless” sanctions, amounted to an economic “blitzkrieg” that had “no chance of succeeding from the very beginning”. He said the restrictions were “more harmful” to those who imposed them.
He also accused the US of treating other countries as “colonies” and said nothing would be as it used to be in global politics.
MSN reports: Putin’s Second World War reference is a nod to a blitzkrieg – a fast and intense military attack that takes the enemy by surprise and the tactic behind Germany’s success at the time.
He said gloomy forecasts for the Russian economy, and attempts to hammer it with sanctions, had not been fulfilled.
There were fears the Russian rouble would be pushed to 200 for every dollar – but Mr Putin dismissed this as a form of “information battle”.
Amid a lengthy denunciation of the United States and its allies, the Russian leader said the West has tried to isolate or cancel the “wrong” states.
He drew applause from the hall when he reaffirmed his determination to continue the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
He said the main aim of the incursion 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 the war.
The Russian showcase event is being held this year with almost no Western participation.
His speech came just hours after the EU Commission announced it had proposed Ukraine as a member of the European Union.
In response, Mr Putin accused the organisation of having lost its political sovereignty and said the EU could lose more than $400 billion (£27bn) due to its sanctions against Russia.
