COLD WAR?
The failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive this yr has raised questions within the West and inside Ukraine about simply how lifelike 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 Struggle”, with Russia and China on one facet and the West on the opposite.
Requested about how frequent floor could possibly be discovered with the West given the rhetoric on each side, Putin stated: “They must discover frequent floor as a result of they must 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 the USA.
The West, Putin stated, had failed to know the extent of the adjustments 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 truth is that after the autumn of the Soviet Union, they thought-about that they only needed to await a bit to fully destroy Russia,” Putin stated.
Putin casts the battle as a part of a a lot larger wrestle with the USA, 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 predominant threats, says it has no plan to destroy Russia. Ukraine says it won’t relaxation till each final Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.