Russian President Vladimir Putin considered Friday that the United States sees itself as a “messenger of God on Earth.”
During his speech at the plenary meeting of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, Putin said that “after claiming victory in the Cold War, the United States declared it was the messenger of God on Earth, who has no obligations, but only interests – and these interests are sacrosanct.”
The Russian President pointed out that “the United States is ostensibly unaware that over the past decades new powerful centers have emerged around the globe and their voice is heard ever louder. Each of them is developing its own political system and public institutions and implements its own model of economic growth and, of course, has the right to protect them and to ensure national sovereignty.”
Putin said that “we are witnessing objective processes and truly revolutionary tectonic changes” in the world.
In the same context, Putin said the United States can steal other countries’ money at any moment if it does not like something.
“[Money] can also be confiscated, stolen, if the United States does not like something in the policies of other states,” he mentioned.
The Russian leader recalled that the US had long been a major supplier of food to the world market. However, Washington’s role has dramatically changed today.
“[The US] has turned from an absolute exporter of food into a pure importer … it prints money and draws commodity flows over themselves, buying food all over the world,” he said.
The Russian President also indicated that economic mistakes are pushing Europe to deepen inequality, a surge of radicalism, and, eventually, a “change of elites.”
Putin considered that all the current talks in the West about the so-called “Putin’s inflation” were designed “for those who cannot read and write.”
He stressed that “the European Union has completely lost its political sovereignty, and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else’s tune, accepting whatever they are told from above, causing harm to their own population and their own economy.”
He believed that the policy of European authorities will deepen the split in the West not only on economic matters but also on its values system.
“Such a detachment from reality, from the demands of society, will inevitably lead to a surge of populism and the growth of radical movements, to serious social and economic changes, to degradation, and in the near future, to a change of elites,” Putin added.
The Russian President affirmed that gloomy Western forecasts about one US dollar selling for 200 rubles and the collapse of the Russian economy are part of information warfare that did not come true.
“All of this was and remains an instrument of information warfare, a factor of psychological pressure on the Russian society, on domestic business circles,” Putin said.
He also slammed the Western sanctions on Russia as “insane and thoughtless,” noting that their aim was to crush the Russian economy “in one fell swoop” by destroying business chains, forcing the withdrawal of Western companies from the Russian market, freezing domestic assets, and hitting the industry, finance, and the standard of living of the Russian people.
“But they failed,” Putin said, stressing that Moscow is working step by step to normalize the situation.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
