“No matter what we do, we are always met with problems, opposition, and fights with us… Do you think that if our bear sits quietly and stops chasing piglets around the taiga, then they’ll leave him alone? They won’t. They will always try to put [the bear] on a chain,” Putin said.
If the bear is chained, the West will “pull out its teeth and claws,” Putin continued, adding that the West had an anti-Russian stance long before the current crisis in relations between Russia and the West started.
The evidence includes the creation of NATO anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, and the way the western media covered the Olympic Games in Russia's city of Sochi, the president said.
Geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West intensified after Crimea’s referendum to join Russia. Accusing Moscow of meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, the West imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia, targeting its energy, defense and banking industries.
Another step taken by Western states in response to Russia's alleged interference in Ukraine's affairs was NATO's stepping up of military presence on Russian borders.
