Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the United States on Thursday for seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine and said a struggle was under way to shape a new world order as the Western-dominated post-Cold War era crumbled.
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“We have come to a dangerous line,” Putin told the Valdai discussion club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, a day after learning that Donald Trump had won the US presidential election.
“The calls of the West to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, a country with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, demonstrates the exorbitant adventurism of Western politicians,” said Putin.
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Global reaction to Trump’s win in the US presidential election
Global reaction to Trump’s win in the US presidential election
Putin congratulated Trump on winning the US election and said he was “ready” to talk to the US president-elect, adding: “I was impressed by Trump’s behaviour during the assassination attempt. He is brave. I had the impression that Trump was bullied during his first term.”
On China, the Russian president said: “Moscow welcomes China’s stabilising role in Central Asia, which is also useful for Russia.”
The West had arrogantly sought to cast Russia as a defeated power after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, Putin said, describing the US-led Nato military alliance as an anachronism. Putin said Russia and Europe must return to a state of mutual trust.
Russia, Putin said, did not consider Western civilisation to be the enemy despite attempts by the United States and its allies to isolate Moscow.