During his annual press conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that if he had the opportunity to go back in time, he would give himself an important piece of advice regarding the West. He added, "If I could go back in time, I would return to the year 2000 and warn myself about naivety and excessive trust in the West, while also encouraging myself by saying: Comrade, you are on the right path."
Putin spoke about Russian territories and the history of Moscow's relationship with the West in light of the Ukrainian conflict, stating, "The normalization of relations between Russia and the European Union does not depend solely on the efforts made by Moscow, as it was not the party that spoiled these relations." He pointed out that the West was the party that disrupted these relations and has always tried to push Russia into the background while ignoring its own interests.
He highlighted that "NATO's reckless desire to approach Russia's borders by including Ukraine in the alliance has led to the current tragedies and caused the bloody events in Donbas for eight years," saying, "They forced us to take these actions."
Regarding the United States, he explained that Russia is ready to build relationships with the United States because it is important and necessary for its global significance. He emphasized that "the absolute imperial policy pursued by the United States hinders itself more than it hinders other countries, including Russia, because in American public consciousness, they should act as an empire."
According to President Putin, for this reason, "if U.S. authorities agree on something somewhere or concede something to someone, voters perceive this as a kind of failure or gap, so the elites are usually forced to act in this way."
