MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of the United Russia party, on Thursday said it became obvious after Crimea rejoined Russia that the West planned to wage an intense fight with Russia.

"Few of us, maybe 5-7 years ago, could have imagined what would happen. Yes, we saw where things were headed, and we saw the position taken by Western countries toward our state. They realized that we were not going to sacrifice our independence, give up sovereignty, and swear allegiance to them," he said at a meeting with United Russia volunteers and donors who were participating in the party’s humanitarian program.

"And after Crimea became part of Russia, it was obvious that they were all focused on confronting us as much as possible, fighting us, trying to nullify all our development achievements of recent years," said Medvedev, who is also Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council.

According to the politician, Western countries made efforts to erase the country’s historical memory.

"As if there was no such country, and people did not live together. They just [wanted] us to sit in our small apartments and be happy that they help us to live in some way, while giving us their dollars," Medvedev said.

According to him, Russia couldn’t agree to those conditions because the issue concerned the development of the country as a whole.

"At the time, when they essentially decided to pit two close peoples against each other, everything became immediately clear to all of us. This is an obvious way to simply limit Russia's development," Medvedev stressed.

He said that the main goal of "those forces that have been working for this conflict for a long time" is to limit Russia's development and contain its potential.

"What for? In order to ensure their own dominance," Medvedev emphasized.