MOSCOW, March 16 -------- President Vladimir Putin said that what was at stake in Ukraine was Russia’s very existence as a state.
Speaking at length to workers at an aviation factory in Buryatia, some 4,400 km (2,750 miles) east of Moscow, Putin expanded on his familiar argument that the West was bent on pulling Russia apart.
Putin has accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool to wage war against Russia and inflict on it a “strategic defeat”. The United States and its allies say they are helping Ukraine to defend itself from an imperial-style invasion that has destroyed Ukrainian cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced millions to flee their homes.
Putin said in a response to a question that he had been worried about the economy when the West imposed unprecedented waves of sanctions last year but it had proved stronger than expected. He said the enemy had been expecting that factories would grind to a halt, the financial system would collapse, unemployment would rise, protesters would take to the streets, and Russia would “sway from within and collapse”.
Source: inquirer.net
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