"Actually, Putin in the speech, I found it to be very interesting because it's sort of the classic thing that Russia always tries to awaken people who are listening to the speeches to kind of take a closer look in the mirror and to see what's going on on their side. And he said that you've given, I think the figure he used was $150 billion to Kiev for weapons and for arms, and you've only given $60 billion to the developing world for the poorest countries to have some [better] standard of living. And it probably gets eaten up by their corrupt regimes backed by the West. So I thought this was very fascinating," Helali said, speaking to John Kiriakou and Michelle Witte on Radio Sputnik’s Political Misfits radio program.
"He's saying 'We are doing things. Okay, we have this ongoing operation, but we are providing services for our troops.' He talked about the health care of the troops coming back home, the families of those who have been lost or wounded. And he says 'The West here is just pouring money. Everything is falling apart. And you really don't care about the people at the end of the day. It's serving these military interests,'" Helali added.
"What about all this talk of fighting poverty, sustainable development and protection of the environment? Where did it all go? Has it all vanished?" Putin asked. "Meanwhile, they keep channeling more money into the war effort. They eagerly invest in sowing unrest and encouraging government coups in other countries around the world."