MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - Western elites have become a symbol of total and unprincipled lies, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"Over centuries of colonialism, diktat, and hegemony, they've gotten accustomed to the idea that everything is permitted to them. They've gotten accustomed to not giving a damn about the whole world. It turned out that they treat their own people in the same condescending and seigniorial way. They also cynically deceived them with fables about looking for peace and being committed to the UN Security Council resolutions on Donbass," Putin said in his address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday.
Russia is defending not only its own interests but also the premise that there should be no division into civilized countries and all others in the modern world, he said.
"We were open and sincerely prepared for a constructive dialogue with the West. We said and insisted that Europe and the whole world needed an indivisible security system equal for all states. We invited our partners to discuss this idea together and work toward its implementation for years. We routinely received an incoherent or hypocritical response," he said.