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Russia’s failure to outline national interests 25 years ago was mistake — Putin

The Russian president added that "talks are one thing, but geopolitical interests are the quite different matter"

SOCHI, January 11. /TASS/. Russia should have clearly outlined the course of its national policy and interests a quarter of century ago and the failure to do so was a mistake, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with German daily Bild.

"We have not stated our national interests while it was necessary to do so since the very beginning. Perhaps in that instance the whole world would have been more balanced," Putin said adding that the failure to put forward the country’s national interests at that time was a mistake.

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union [in 1991] complicated processes emerged within Russia itself and they were the drop in the industrial production, the breakdown of the social system, separatism and the obvious assault of the international terrorism," he said.

"Of course, it was our own fault, to say the least, and nobody can be blamed for that," Putin said.

However, he said, "it is an obvious fact for us that the international terrorism was used in the fight against Russia and it seems that nobody either paid attention to it, or, on the contrary, rendered support - the political, information and sometimes military support was rendered to anti-government forces in Russia."

The Russian president added that "talks are one thing, but geopolitical interests are the quite different matter.".