The Russian president made the comments in a major State of the Union-style address focused on the crisis in Ukraine and the broader global security crisis.
Russia spent many years seeking a constructive dialogue with the West, and proposing an indivisible, equality-based system of joint security, but received only a "hypocritical" reaction - NATO's expansion to Russia's borders, and missile defense umbrellas across Europe and Asia, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Speaking to lawmakers during his address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday, Putin accused the US and its allies of playing the "same double game" in Ukraine as they had in the years prior in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
Putin stressed that Russia is not at war with the people of Ukraine, and that "the people of Ukraine are now hostages to the regime in Kiev and its Western masters," and their country used as a "tool" and a "launchpad" for a conflict against Russia, complete with NATO bases and military biolabs.
Putin says it's impossible to defeat Russia on battlefield. Putin said it is the West who unleashed war, while we use force to contain it. “The president stressed that Russia is defending its homeland and the lives of people, while the West's goal is power with no limits”, Putin stressed.
