ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. The haste and the amount of the current sanctions the US-led West levelled against Russia are record-setting, President Vladimir Putin remarked, speaking at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.
"Their (sanctions - TASS) number and the speed at which they were churned out was never seen before. The idea obviously was to impudently crush the Russian economy," he stated. Putin slammed the sanctions against Russia as "insane and mindless."
President Putin stressed that the West still treats countries outside the so-called golden billion "as their colonies, and the peoples living there are considered to be second-class individuals, because they [in the West] consider themselves exceptional."
The head of state also noted that this is the essence of the West’s irrepressible desire to punish and economically crush those who break away from the fold and who refuse to submit, while shamelessly implanting their own ethics, cultural views and vision of history.
"If some rebel cannot be pacified, they try to isolate him, and cancel him," the head of state continued.
"They go after everything - sports, the Olympic movement, culture, and art. And the only reason for that [getting cancelled] is the fact that the authors are of the wrong origin."
"This is the nature of the current bout of Russophobia in the West," he concluded.