MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) - Russia will view any foreign interference aimed to provoke interethnic and interreligious conflicts in its territory as aggression and will react correspondingly, President Vladimir Putin said.
"Please note that we will view any foreign interference, provocations aimed to incite interethnic or interreligious conflicts as acts of aggression against our country and yet another attempt [to use] terrorism and extremism in Russia as an instrument of the fight against us. We will react correspondingly," Putin said at a meeting of the World Russian People's Council.
"Let me stress once again that any attempts to sow interethnic and interreligious discord and to split our society are treason and a crime against the whole of Russia," Putin said.
"We will not allow anyone to divide Russia, which is the only one we have," he said.
The West "does not need such a big and multinational country as Russia," Putin said.
"Our diversity and unity of cultures, traditions, languages and ethnic groups simply does not fit into the logic of Western racists and colonialists, into their cruel scheme of total depersonalization, disunity, suppression and exploitation. So, they are playing the old tune again, alleging that Russia is a prison of peoples, while Russians are a nation of slaves. We have heard this many times over the centuries. We also heard that Russia, it turns out, needs to be decolonized today. But what do they really need? In fact, they seek to dismember and plunder Russia. Can't achieve this by force? Then sow confusion," Putin said.
Since the collapse of the Russian Empire and later of the Soviet Union, there have been "bloody focal points" of conflict, which not only are "still smoldering, but sometimes flare up with renewed vehemence," he said.
"And these wounds will not heal soon. We shall never forget those mistakes and we must not repeat them. I want to reiterate: any attempts to sow inter-ethnic and inter-religious discord, to split our society, is betrayal, a crime against the whole of Russia. We will let no one divide Russia, of which we have one," Putin said.