[ad_1]
Russia-West relations have reached their lowest level since the Cold War, with the recent decision by the EU and the United States to impose new criminal measures on the imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navaln.
Addressing the Federal Security Service (FSB) in his annual speech, Putin said the West was “trying to surround us with economic and other sanctions.”
“We are faced with an alleged Russian containment policy,” he said.
“This is not about competition, but about a constant and very aggressive way of working, which aims to interrupt our development, slow it down, create problems on our borders,” Putin added.
According to the Russian leader, the West is taking various measures “from the arsenal to the special services.”
Such efforts are aimed at “causing instability within the country, eliminating the values that unite the Russian people, and ultimately weakening Russia and controlling it from the outside,” he said.
Earlier this month, Putin accused the West of using Navalnu, which he said was backed by the US security services, to “suppress” Russia. The term was used to describe America’s strategy toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
On Wednesday, the Russian leader called on the FSB to make the West a priority in its work this year, putting it alongside the prevention of terrorism.
“The suppression of any attempt to usurp the right of the Russian people to make their own decisions about their future should also be in their focus,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council, accused the West of not abandoning sanctions imposed on Moscow, despite the global economic recession caused by the pandemic.
This week, the EU agreed to new sanctions against four Russian officials for jailing Navaln.
The EU has repeatedly imposed sanctions on Russia on several occasions for the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and incitement to war in eastern Ukraine.
It is not allowed to publish, quote or reproduce the information of the BNS news agency in the media and on websites without the written consent of the UAB “BNS”.
[ad_2]
