Russian President Vladimir Putin has outlined his foreign policy priorities to ambassadors and envoys. The experts noted he was confident, revealing and sent quite a clear message to the West. He certainly has not attacked any Western leader, despite numerous personal attacks against himself.
Robert Oulds, Director of the Bruges Group, an independent all-party think tank, told Radio VR that President Putin spoke about how he wanted to be engaging with the rest of the world, but pointed out that the US, supported by the European Union, is still following the containment policy, as he described it, that existed during the Cold War. And in this, America has not moved on from the Cold War era and is still trying to take actions against Russia. But Vladimir Putin was clearly drawing line in this end and said it has been pushed far enough and he would take further actions if, indeed, Russia's interests were continued to be threatened by the EU and the US.
VR's political analyst Dmitry Babich also compared the current Western rhetoric with that of the Cold War, but said it is even worse and certainly much more belligerent.
"For example, Obama talks about complete diplomatic isolation of Russia," he said. "I do not remember Carter or Reagan saying that. And no one could even remotely imagine a civil war on the territory of Ukraine, which is, I would say, a Slavic heartland."
Dmitry Babich also pointed out that despite numerous personal attacks against him, like Merkel saying that he lost touch with reality, there was not a single personal attack from President Putin during this speech or in the previous days. He said a few words about Poroshenko, but basically what he said was that the so-called anti-terrorist operation was started by other people, but now that Poroshenko ordered the truce ended and the military activity re-started, he will bear the full responsibility. It was not a personal attack, but rather an affirmation of the fact which is on the ground.
Robert Oulds also mentioned the full responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities and the current regime. They took power in what was an illegal coup, largely sponsored by America and the European Union, and certainly encouraged politically, and they have been taking military actions against civilians, innocent people are being killed as a result of these military actions.
But this is hardly being reported in the Western media. The Western media is thoroughly misrepresenting the situation and trying to pretend that these events have been started by President Putin in Russia and the whole narrative is about Russian expansionism, when actually this is the European Union and NATO and the US involvement in Ukraine which has undermined this country and pushed it to the situation where people in the east of the country have taken up their right to self-determination, expressed it in the referendum. The EU has blood on its hands for what it has been doing in Ukraine but it failed to be reported properly in the Western media.
With regards to the Western foreign policy, Dmitry Babich noted that President Putin sees all the moves of the West, even the most irrational ones and he tries to count these moves in a cold-blooded way, without conspiracy theories and personal attacks. He just says that Russia should defend its own interests.
