On October 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the Valdai Club. As part of the address, he spoke about the war in Ukraine, but put all the blame on Western countries.
The President of the Russian Federation spoke about the reason for the invasion of Ukraine: "The West staged a coup d'état in Ukraine, which led to the fact that we launched a special operation. Did we stage this coup d'état?"
"We have expenses and, above all, it concerns the SMO, there are economic losses, but there are also huge purchases," Putin said.
The President of the Russian Federation stated that Russia did not like the probable expansion of NATO at the expense of Ukraine, as well as the rejection of the Minsk agreements.
"We had to decide something with Donbas. People have been living under shelling for eight years. We recognized their independence and included it in our state. To recognize the "independence of the republics" of Donbas and abandon it would be unacceptable," Putin assured.
He also mentioned Viktor Yanukovych: "Yanukovych gave up power. Why was it necessary to carry out a bloody anti-state coup d'état? To show who is the boss here - 'everyone should sit on the bottom equally.'
Putin declared that "Russians and Ukrainians are one people", which appeared in the ninth century, first in Novgorod, then in Kyiv.
"Ukraine, of course, was created as an artificial state. These are historical facts. Only Russia, which created Ukraine, could be the only real guarantor of Ukrainian sovereignty," said the President of the Russian Federation.
According to the Russian leader, the idea of globalization, which he calls "neocolonial," is to use the resources of the entire planet "for the survival of Western civilization."
"As soon as the big powers of Asia started to benefit from globalization, not the Western countries, the West immediately canceled many rules," - claimed Putin.
Putin also criticized "Western liberal democracy," which, he said, could be replaced by "other forms of people's power."
"The absolute majority of countries now need democracy in international affairs, not accepting any forms of authoritarian dictates of individual states," the Russian leader complains.
According to Putin, "Russia has never been an enemy of the West", on the contrary, the West tried to "use Russia".
"There are two Wests - the West of the richest culture, traditional, first of all, Christian values, with which we have ancient roots in common, and the cosmopolitan West, which acts as a tool of the liberal elites. Russia will never submit to the dictates of this West," Putin said.