Putin claimed the West has been waging an “unprecedented information campaign” against the Kremlin, speculating on combat losses in Ukraine and overhyping the socioeconomic fallout of sanctions to activate Russia’s “fifth column.”
“Any people, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths — spit them out on the panel,” he declared in a speech Wednesday, according to a transcription from the Kremlin. “I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion, and readiness to respond to any challenges.”
During the meeting with government ministers to address socioeconomic support for Russian communities afflicted by the sanctions, Putin accused the West of endeavoring to diminish Russia to a “miserable and humiliated state” and pledged to defend its sovereignty amid an attempted economic blitzkrieg.
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“The collective West is trying to split our society — speculating on combat losses, on the socioeconomic consequences of sanctions — to provoke a civil confrontation in Russia and, using its fifth column, is striving to achieve its goal. And there is only one goal: the destruction of Russia,” he stated. While emphasizing that he would not “judge those with villas in Miami or the French Riviera,” he insisted that some Russians were “mentally located precisely there and not here — not with our people.”
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He expressed concerns about the prospects of that specific segment of Russians being sympathetic to the West and maintaining the country’s fifth column. Reflecting on Western support for the rebels in Chechnya during the 1990s and early 2000s, he foresees that an alliance between the West and Russia’s fifth column will be unsuccessful.
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“It didn’t work out then, and it won’t work out now. Yes, of course, they will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on national traitors, on those who earn money here, with us, but live there — and ‘live’ not even in the geographical sense of the word,” he asserted. “They believe that everything is for sale and everything is bought, and therefore they think that we will break down and retreat. But they do not know our history and our people well.”
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Putin acknowledged that economic conditions in Russia are grim. According to Bloomberg, an avalanche of sanctions has wiped an estimated $30 billion from the country’s annual gross domestic product. Dozens of Western companies, for example, Apple, have scaled down operations or announced plans to leave Russia in response to the war in Ukraine.
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