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US, Europe should 'stop fooling around' expecting Russia’s collapse — Putin

The Russian leader noted that the US and Europe must themselves contemplate what they are being motivated by

© Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Russia does not shut itself from the US and Europe, and it is time for them to "stop fooling around" expecting Russia’s collapse, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the meeting of the Council on strategic development and national projects.

"I would like to note that we do not shut ourselves from the American continent, from North America, from the US and Canada, we do not shut ourselves from European states," the head of state said. "They [the US and Europe] actually should stop fooling around and stop waiting for us to collapse."

According to the president, it has become clear for everyone that, if Western states want to benefit from cooperation with Russia, they can do it.

"We do not push them away. But it is their business and their decision," Putin noted.

He noted that the US and Europe must themselves contemplate what they are being motivated by.

"Either by some ephemeral considerations of destruction of Russia, or by the interests of their own country, their own people, of their own kind," the Russian leader explained. "But, I repeat, it is their business."

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