Putin lashes out at the West in combative speech and threatens again with missiles | Abroad

Putin’s speech was originally scheduled for 1 p.m. GMT, but was delayed by an hour due to a “denial-of-service” cyber attack, the Kremlin said, which promised a landmark speech by the president at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

Western sanctions against Russia have had no effect, according to President Vladimir Putin. “The economic blitzkrieg had no chance of success from the start,” he said. “We are strong people and can take on any challenge.”

Putin called the sanctions imposed by Western countries over Russia’s attack on Ukraine “insane” and “ill-considered”. He said that the sanctions also hit the EU hard and estimated the damage to Europe at 400 billion dollars (more than 380 billion euros).

In his more than an hour long speech to business representatives, Putin criticized the West in other areas as well. This is how the United States behaves, according to the president, as “God’s messenger on earth”. He also stated that the West wants to colonize other parts of the world.

Unscathed by the economic sanctions, Russia is entering a new world order as a “mighty and modern country,” Putin said. According to him, it is “clear” that the rules of that new world order are set by “strong and sovereign states”. In support of this, he reiterated the claim that Russia has hypersonic missiles that no one else has.

The Russian president added that the global inflation spike is not the result of the “operation” in Ukraine. “We hear all about so-called ‘Putin inflation’,” Putin said. “Our actions to liberate the Donbas have nothing to do with that.” The high inflation is the result of “systemic errors by the US administration and European bureaucracy. Our operation is a lifeline for them to put everything on us.”

Putin still says Russia is not blocking the export of Ukrainian grain. “We have not placed the mines in the ports,” it said. If Kiev clears the mines, Russia will guarantee the safety of the exports, the Russian president said.