COLD WAR?
The failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive this yr has raised questions within the West and inside Ukraine about simply how real looking the Ukrainian and Western goals of defeating Russian forces in Ukraine are.
Officers in Moscow and the West have repeatedly spoken of a “new Chilly Battle”, with Russia and China on one aspect and the West on the opposite.
Requested about how frequent floor might be discovered with the West given the rhetoric on each side, Putin stated: “They should discover frequent floor as a result of they should reckon with us.”
A senior US State Division official, who spoke on situation of anonymity, stated final month that Putin wouldn’t make peace earlier than he is aware of the outcomes of the November election in america.
The West, Putin stated, had failed to grasp the extent of the modifications ushered in by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which he stated had eliminated any real ideological foundation for a confrontation between Russia and the West.
“I actually did have a naive impression,” Putin, a former KGB spy who rose to energy in 1999, stated of his impressions of the world in 2000.
“The fact is that after the autumn of the Soviet Union, they thought of that they only needed to await a bit to fully destroy Russia,” Putin stated.
Putin casts the struggle as a part of a a lot greater battle with america, which the Kremlin elite says goals to cleave Russia aside, seize its huge pure sources after which flip to settling scores with China.
The West, which presents Russia and China as its foremost threats, says it has no plan to destroy Russia. Ukraine says it is not going to relaxation till each final Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.