Vladimir Putin accuses West of trying to ‘tear apart’ Russia in Christmas Day message

William Mata25 December 2022

Vladimir Putin has said the West is looking to “tear apart” Russia in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

The Russian president’s message, in which he also accused rivals of failing to participate in talks, was aired on Russian television on Christmas Day.

Putin additionally said he was "100 per cent" confident that his forces would destroy the Pentagon's most advanced air defence system, which US president Joe Biden has promised to send to Ukraine.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most deadly conflict in Europe since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Kremlin said it will fight until all its aims are achieved while Kyiv says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from all of its territory, including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014.

“We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them - we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are,” Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in an interview aired on Sunday.

CIA director William Burns said in an interview published this month that while most conflicts end in negotiation, the CIA's assessment was that Russia was not yet serious about a real negotiation to end the war.

Putin said Russia was acting in the “right direction” in Ukraine because the West, led by the United States, was trying to cleave Russia apart. Washington denies it is plotting Russia's collapse.

“I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we have no other choice but to protect our citizens,” Putin said.

When asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was approaching a dangerous level, Putin said: "I don't think it's so dangerous."

He said the West had begun the conflict in Ukraine in 2014 by toppling a pro-Russian president in the Maidan Revolution protests.

Soon after that revolution, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces began fighting Ukraine's armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

"Actually, the fundamental thing here is the policy of our geopolitical opponents which is aimed at pulling apart Russia, historical Russia," Putin said.

Putin casts what he calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine as a watershed moment when Moscow finally stood up to a Western bloc he says has been seeking to destroy Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine and the West say Putin has no justification for what they cast as an imperial-style war of occupation which has sowed suffering and death across Ukraine.

Putin described Russia as a “unique country” and that the vast majority of its people were united in wanting to defend it.

“As for the main part - the 99.9 per cent of our citizens, our people who are ready to give everything for the interests of the Motherland there is nothing unusual for me here," Putin said.

"This just once again convinces me that Russia is a unique country and that we have exceptional people. This has been confirmed throughout the history of Russia's existence."

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