On 6 July President Putin made a significant speech intheKremlin’s St Catherine Hall. Putin was meeting with theleaders oftheState Duma andtheheads ofparty factions oftheFederal Assembly oftheRussian Federation. Here are the important sections of the Russian President’s speech:

“Theso-called collective West led bytheUnited States has been extremely aggressive towards Russia fordecades. Our proposals tocreate asystem ofequal security inEurope have been rejected. Initiatives forcooperation ontheissue ofmissile defence were rejected. Warnings about theunacceptability ofNATO expansion, especially attheexpense oftheformer republics oftheSoviet Union, were ignored. Even theidea ofRussia’s possible integration into this North Atlantic alliance, and good relations with NATO, apparently, seemed absurd toits members…

We are being told that we started thewar inDonbass, inUkraine. No, thewar was unleashed bythecollective West, which organised andsupported theunconstitutional armed coup inUkraine in2014, andthen encouraged andjustified genocide against thepeople ofDonbass. Thecollective West is thedirect instigator andtheculprit ofwhat is happening today.

If theWest wanted toprovoke aconflict inorder tomove ontoanew stage…