Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual televised phone-in Thursday, and used the five-hour event to position his nation as a victim of western aggression.
CNBC:
The president holds the session each year, taking questions on a wide range of subjects from Moscow's geopolitical stance to domestic and regional issues. This year's direct line to the president is the 16th he has held and over 2 million questions were submitted, according to state broadcaster Russia Today.
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Russia is still operating under economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., European Union and several other countries following its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its role in a pro-Russian uprising in east Ukraine that same year.
Putin said sanctions were counter-productive, remarking that "unilateral sanctions do not resolve problems" and were a way of restraining Russia — as were allegations of wrongdoing by Moscow.
Those events, coupled with the Kremlin's military support for Syria's pariah President Bashar Assad, alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and suspected involvement in a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in the U.K., have eroded relations between Russia and the international community.
Putin said the West sees Russia as a threat and competitor but that this approach is a mistake. "Russia has to defend its interests," he said and pledged to keep doing that.
AFP:
He also slammed the "persecution" of Russian business people abroad after billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska was targeted in US sanctions and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich faced delays to his British visa application.
Putin also compared the trade tariffs announced by President Donald Trump on US allies to Western sanctions against Russia.
"This is the imposition of sanctions, expressed in a different way," he said, adding that he had warned other Western nations years ago they would suffer from US dominance.
Putin takes aim at West in marathon phone-in (AFP)
Fear of World War III should stop global disputes, Russia's Putin says (CNBC)