Putin slams US lawmakers’ visits to Taiwan, blames US for Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the United States for the continued fighting in Ukraine during an international security summit on Tuesday.

Speaking to an audience attended by military officials from Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Russian leader accused “Western globalist elites” of shifting the blame “for their own failures to Russia and China.”

Putin reiterated his previous claim that the Russian military invaded Ukraine to stop the U.S. government’s attempt of turning the country against Russia.

“They need conflicts to retain their hegemony,” Putin was quoted as saying. “That’s why they have turned the Ukrainian people into cannon fodder. The situation in Ukraine shows that the United States is trying to drag the conflict out, and it acts in exactly the same way trying to fuel conflicts in Asia, Africa and Latin America.”

Putin’s condemnation of Western powers comes amid a series of sanctions imposed by the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries. The sanctions, imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, targeted the country’s banks, oil refineries and military exports, among others.

Putin also referenced U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan to accuse Washington of promoting instability around the world.

“The American adventure in Taiwan wasn’t just a trip by an irresponsible politician,” Putin said. “It was part of a deliberate and conscious U.S. strategy intended to destabilize the situation and create chaos in the region and the entire world, a blatant demonstration of disrespect for another country’s sovereignty and its own international obligations.”

Putin said that attempts by so-called “Western elites” to cling to the “current globalist model” are already doomed. “The era of the unipolar world order is nearing its end,” he added.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who also spoke during the conference, further alleged that in addition to the weapons that Western governments supply to Ukraine, they also aid the Ukrainian military with detailed intelligence information and instructors to teach them how to operate their weapons systems.

Shoigu denied both claims that Russia could potentially use nuclear or chemical weapons in the ongoing conflict.

While Putin’s fight against the West has earned him an ally in Chinese President Xi Jinping, a recent report suggesting that China has been stealing sensitive data from Russian defense might put their friendship to the test.

A report by Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs claimed that China’s government-connected hacking group TA428 conducted numerous attacks on Russia’s military-industrial complex.

“The attack targeted industrial plants, design bureaus and research institutes, government agencies, ministries and departments in several East European countries (Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine), as well as Afghanistan,” the report noted.

Featured Image via Sky News

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