Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Western elites for recent political developments in Europe, including the far right’s victory in elections in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Speaking to reporters on the first day of his visit to India, Putin initially said he did not wish to comment directly on the result achieved by the Alternative for Germany (AfD), but then sharply criticized Western elites over political developments across the continent.
“Everything that is happening in Europe today is essentially the result of the systemic mistakes made by the so-called West, by Western globalists in politics, security and the economy,” Putin said.
According to the Russian president, Western countries ignored Moscow’s opposition to NATO’s eastward expansion.
Putin also claimed that following the removal from power of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in 2014, the West had made Ukraine’s NATO membership a strategic objective. According to him, this ultimately became the main cause of the war in Ukraine.
“Western globalist elites are to blame for this, although they constantly try to shift the blame onto us. I think people in Europe understand what is happening. That is why we are seeing these results in Germany and these trends in Europe in general,” he said.
The Russian president also said that Western countries were frightening their citizens with a “false threat from Russia,” which, he claimed, has existed since the era of the Soviet Union.
“But such a threat does not exist and has never existed,” Putin added.
Putin is expected to attend the BRICS summit in India, alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In Sunday’s elections in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD emerged as the largest party after campaigning on an anti-migration platform and advocating for closer relations with Moscow.
To form a government in the state, the AfD will now need to secure support from lawmakers belonging to other parties or reach an agreement with the small far-left BSW party.
