Answer to a media question

Concluding the first day of his working visit to India, Vladimir Putin answered a media question.

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Question: You have spoken at length today about the BRICS countries. I would like to raise a question concerning a nation which, though geographically more distant from here, is perhaps closer to you personally - Germany. As is known, elections have recently taken place in Saxony, where the Alternative for Germany secured a decisive victory. It appears a similar trend is emerging in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well. How do you view these developments?

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I do not wish to, nor will I, comment on matters of the internal political developments currently unfolding in the Federal Republic.

However, there are points which merit attention in this context - and I will explain why. In my view, all that is now happening across Europe as a whole is the consequence of systemic errors committed by the so-called West, or, to be more precise, by the globalist circles of the West, in the political, security and economic spheres.

Everyone is prone to mistakes. We, too, have made numerous mistakes, as has the wider world. Yet the difficulty for the globalist West lies here: following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, they perceived themselves as standing atop the "summit of Mount Olympus," and evidently concluded that, firstly, they were permitted everything and, secondly, that they themselves were incapable of error. From then on, these mistakes began to accumulate and snowball.

In the security sphere - the meaning is clear. This has taken the form of attempts to put pressure on the Russian Federation, initially through the use of terrorists in the Caucasus and separatists, then via other methods, and now - by means of the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine. This process continues unabated.

At one time, we were included in the G8. Yet, as I have previously stated, this did not constitute full-fledged membership. I saw this plainly and saw everything quite clearly. Although, on the surface, all appeared well and all the requisite words were spoken, in practice - I reiterate - they directly supported separatism in the Caucasus and sought to break up Russia. This is a matter of fact. Furthermore, today's crisis in Ukraine was likewise instigated by them. These are persistent and recurring elements of pressure.

After all, we have repeatedly stated that NATO's expansion eastward is unacceptable to us. Ultimately, they reached Ukraine. President Yanukovych was removed from office through a coup d'état. I am not now offering any assessment of President Yanukovych's actions. There were, most likely, numerous mistakes, and probably grounds for the population's discontent. Yet he was opposed to Ukraine's accession to NATO. As soon as the regime was changed through, I repeat, a bloody coup d'état, the objective of pulling Ukraine into NATO was immediately set in motion, and this, in fact, became the root cause of today's tragic events in Ukraine.

To be continued.