“When they won the Cold War, the United States declared itself God’s representatives on earth, people who have no responsibilities – only interests. They declared these interests sacred. Now it is a one-way street that makes the world unstable,” Putin told the audience.
The much-publicized speech was delayed by more than 90 minutes due to a “massive” cyber attack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in an impromptu conference call that the speech was postponed due to widespread denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on conference systems.
It is not clear immediately who is behind the attack. The Ukrainian IT army, a hacker group, identified the forum in St. Petersburg as a target earlier this week on its Telegram channel.
Putin’s speech at the annual conference in the western Russian city was seen as an opportunity for the world to gain some insight into his thinking, about four months after his war against Ukraine.
After the Russian president took the stage, he wasted no time in courtesies and went on the offensive against the United States and its allies.
“They live in the past alone under their own delusions … They think … they have won and then everything else is a colony, a backyard. And the people who live there are second-class citizens, “he said, adding that Russia’s” special operation “- a phrase the Russian government uses to describe its war against Ukraine – has become a lifesaver for The West blames Russia for all the problems. “
The longtime Russian leader also accused the West of trying to harm the Russian economy by calling sanctions against Moscow “crazy” and “reckless.”
“Their intention is clearly to crush the Russian economy by breaking the chain of logistics chains, freezing national assets and attacking the standard of living, but they have not succeeded,” he added. “It didn’t work out. Russian businessmen have united, working hard, conscientiously and step by step, we are normalizing the economic situation.”
The Russian president has long articulated his decision to launch an invasion of Ukraine in response to growing diplomatic and security ties with Kyiv and the West. Last week, he hinted that his goal in Ukraine was to restore Russia as an imperial power.
The European Commission said on Friday it recommended Ukraine and neighboring Moldova as EU candidate countries, with commission chief Ursula von der Leyen saying Ukrainians were “ready to die” for the European perspective.
Speaking to the European Union on Friday, Putin said the bloc had “lost its sovereignty”.
“The European Union has completely lost its sovereignty and its elites are dancing to someone’s tune, harming their own people. “The real interests of Europeans and European business have been completely ignored and pushed aside,” he said.
Niam Kennedy, Sugam Pocarell and CNN’s Sean Lingaas contributed to the report.
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