Moscow’s conditions for resolving the Ukraine conflict will require Kiev to recognize that its former regions are now under Russian sovereignty, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
He warned that the current offer is the best Kiev is going to get, as Russia will not allow hostilities to be frozen while the West rearms Ukrainian forces.
Putin outlined Russia’s key policy goals during a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials. The following is a recap of the keynote speech
The world missed an opportunity to create a better, more just and secure international order in the 1990s, and the US and its allies are to blame, as they refused to respect the interests of other nations, Putin said.
“They decided that they ‘won’ the Cold War and they alone could determine how the world should move on. The practical expression of this attitude was the project for the unrestricted expansion of NATO,” according to the Russian president
NATO diplomacy victimizes nations
The approach of the US-led military bloc to resolving conflicts has proven to be a disaster, Putin argued. NATO’s brand of diplomacy boils down to “accusing the party they dislike of all sins and crushing it.”
That was done to Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and others, causing much human suffering and destruction, he added.
US is a threat to Europe
Contrary to claims by Western politicians, Russia is not the main threat to European nations, Putin insisted. They are harmed because they depend on the US in virtually all areas.
“Ruling European politicians and EU bureaucrats seem to be more afraid of displeasing Washington than of losing the trust of their own citizens,” according to the Russian president. Unlike European leaders of the past, they are mere “extras”.
The ideology that the US tries to impose on the world to save its “imperial status” is leading to a dead end, Putin warned. This “aggressive messianism based on belief in exceptionalism” keeps international relations from becoming more stable.
West undermines market principles
US hegemony erodes the values that Washington claims to defend, including free competition and the global market economy, according to Putin.
“As it fails to compete even under the rules it wrote to benefit itself, Washington resorts to trade restrictions and protectionism,” he stated. “They apply pressure not only on opponents, but also on allies. Just look how they are draining European economies that are on the brink of a recession.”
The US is seeking to confiscate immobilized Russian sovereign assets, but “theft is theft despite all the chicanery,” he added, as any nation can be targeted next.
Kiev was the aggressor
The West caused the Ukraine conflict, Putin stressed. A large portion of Ukraine’s population was pro-Russian, and no amount of propaganda could break that bond. So Western meddlers opted for violence, when they funded and masterminded the 2014 armed coup in Kiev.
The government that emerged and nationalist forces “unleashed terror” on dissenting Ukrainians in the east, instead of allowing them to peacefully break away, although they had the right to seek self-determination under international law.
“Russia did not start this war. The Kiev regime did,” the president insisted.
West pushed Kiev into war
Since 2014, Moscow has encouraged reconciliation in Ukraine, even as Kiev and its backers stonewalled the efforts, Putin said. When people in Donbass declared independence, Kiev sent in troops.
As Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine to support the Donbas in February 2022, Moscow sought a negotiated peace, he continued. When Russian troops were close to Kiev, there was no intention to besiege the city, only to pressure the Ukrainian government to compromise.
However, Kiev opted for war, apparently on Western orders, delivered personally by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to Putin.
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