Russian President Vladimir Putin said the recent wave of protests sweeping across Western Europe was the result of the European Union’s own mistakes. According to him, European countries are struggling to manage the migration crisis.
“Europeans are destroying their own traditions, making them even less capable of passing those traditions on to migrants,” Putin said in an interview.
Mass protests took place again over the weekend. Demonstrators, reportedly angered by the sharp rise in the cost of living and ineffective government policies, clashed with riot police in several cities.
Public discontent and protests against governments have been driven largely by demonstrations in France, which began in September before spreading to other countries.
Putin said some European leaders were incapable of taking responsibility for the unrest. Rather than analysing the situation and identifying its causes, they tended to blame other countries, initially the United States and now Russia, he said.
“But they quickly came to their senses and returned to their traditional accusations against Russia. My first reaction when I saw this was astonishment, because to claim that we are instigating mass protests in major European cities is really going too far,” the Russian president said.
He added that this reflected the weakness of European leaders and their inability to deal with the situation.
