Putin Just Gave One Of The Most Anti-American Speeches Of His Career
APPresident Vladimir Putin holds a terrestrial globe, with Russian territory colored pink, seemingly including the Crimea, presented to him as a gift.Russian President Vladimir Putin just gave one of the most stridently anti-Western speeches of his career, a 40-minute "diatribe ... that was reminiscent of the Cold War," according to Reuters.
Putin was speaking before an "informal group of experts" at a mountain resort outside the former Olympic city of Sochi that included Western specialists critical of his rule. The Russian president held little back rhetorically, blaming the US for military escalations in the former Soviet space and accusing the US and its partners of "pushing [Ukraine] into chaos."
"We did not start this," Putin said before accusing the US of trying to "'remake the whole world' based on its interests" - an accusation often lobbed at Putin's Russia by its foreign critics.
But Putin's speech went beyond critiquing American actions or defending his own. He made several statements that don't really fall within the realm of policy disagreement.
Instead, the Russian president began to attack American society and its system of government, according to tweets from ABC News's Moscow bureau chief.
Putin also expressed a certain confusion over one of the central pillars of American electoral democracy (although in fairness, a lot of people are baffled about this stateside, as well):
Putin's speech included metaphorical appeals to Russian national greatness:
Putin's speech may dispel the idea that the conflict over Ukraine is simply about legitimate Russian concerns over the persecution of Ukraine's Russian minority or NATO encroachment into Moscow's traditional zones of influence.
The Russian president instead seems to be going out of his way to claim that there are larger and more fundamental motivations at play - ones that may have little to do with the politics of the moment and may be more tied to Putin's hostility against the West.