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Watch Vladimir Putin's bizarre speech: ‘World order not possible without Russia’
Vladimir Putin accused the US and its allies of trying to “dismember and plunder” Russia.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Moscow's military action in Ukraine is an existential battle against attempts by the West to destroy his country. Vladimir Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades and is the longest-serving Russian leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, is expected to soon declare his bid to seek another six-year term.
“We are defending the security and well-being of our people, the highest, historical right to be Russia — a strong, independent power, a country-civilization,” Vladimir Putin said, accusing the US and its allies of trying to “dismember and plunder” Russia.
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“We are now fighting for the freedom of not only Russia, but the whole world,” he said in a speech to participants of a meeting organized by the Russian Orthodox Church while denouncing what he described as Western “Russophobia,” claiming that “our diversity and unity of cultures, traditions, languages, and ethnic groups simply don't fit into the logic of Western racists and colonialists, into their cruel scheme of total depersonalization, disunity, suppression and exploitation.”
“If they can’t do it by force, they will try to sow strife,” he said, vowing to block “any outside interference, provocations with the aim of causing interethnic or interreligious conflicts as aggressive actions against our country, as an attempt to once again foment terrorism and extremism in Russia as a tool to fight us.”
Vladimir Putin said that the US-dominated global order has become increasingly decrepit.
“It is our country that is now at the forefront of creating a more equitable world order,” he said, adding, “And I want to emphasize: without a sovereign, strong Russia, no lasting, stable world order is possible.”
