MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Citizens who have taken the path of betrayal will be held responsible according to the law, but Russia will not engage in a ‘witch hunt’, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday.

"Those who have taken the path of direct betrayal, committing terrorist and other crimes against the security of our society and the territorial integrity of the country, will be held accountable according to the law. But we will never resemble the Kiev regime and Western elites who are and have been engaged in witch hunts before," the Russian leader said.

"Let's not settle scores with those who stepped aside, who backed away from their homeland. Let this remain on their conscience, let them live with it. The main thing is that the people, the citizens of Russia, gave them a moral assessment," Putin added.

"It is obvious that the West will try to undermine and split our society, to bet on national traitors, who at all times, I want to emphasize this, have harbored this venomous contempt for their own Fatherland and the desire to monetize this contempt, selling it to anyone willing to buy it. This has always been the case," the Russian president stressed.