MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Over centuries, Russia’s opponents have been saying that this country is impossible to conquer and can only be destroyed from within, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at his annual press conference on Thursday.

"I would like to reiterate what our opponents have been saying for centuries: Russia is impossible to conquer, it can only be destroyed from within. Which was successfully done during World War One, to be more precise, as a result of it, and also in the 1990s when the Soviet Union was destroyed," the head of state said in response to a question by a BBC reporter.

According to Putin, this was done by those who "served other, foreign interests not related to the interests of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation."