Political | Process

Putin said that over the past two decades, the US had behaved as if it were someone “nouveau riche who had suddenly received a lot of wealth in this case, global leadership”.

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• The Russian president’s sentiments were nothing new, but appeared to be a more concise and concentrated version of his grievances at a time when relations between Russia and the west are more strained than at any period since the cold war.

• In a terse opening statement before taking questions for nearly three hours, Putin said: “The exceptionalism of the United States, the way they implement their leadership, is it really a benefit? And their worldwide intervention brings peace and stability, progress and peak of democracy? Maybe we should relax and enjoy this splendor? No!”

• Putin was speaking at the final session of the Valdai Club, a loose group of foreign analysts and Russia experts that meets annually.

• This year, the session took place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. “Unilateral dictatorship and obtrusion of the patterns leads to opposite result.

• Instead of conflicts settlement their escalation. Instead of sovereign, stable states growing chaos. Instead of democracy support for very dubious people, such as neo-Nazis and Islamic extremists,” he said.

• Putin did not face many tough questions from the assembled audience. Peter Lavelle, a presenter on the Kremlin’s Russia Today television channel took the opportunity to tell the president that he is “the most popular man in modern history” and in much of the world is “looked upon as a savior of sorts”.

SOURCE: THEGUARDIAN