Putin: 'It Wasn't Us Who Started the Military Action'

He spoke Wednesday at an annual economic forum
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 7, 2022 8:26 AM CDT
6 Blustery Lines From Putin About the West
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he speaks during a plenary session at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022.   (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Moscow will press on with its military action in Ukraine until reaching its goals and mocked Western attempts to drive Russia into a corner with sanctions. Putin told an annual economic forum in the far-eastern port city of Vladivostok that the main goal behind sending troops into Ukraine was protecting civilians in the east of that country after eight years of fighting. Here are 6 of his most bombastic lines, as reported by the AP and the Wall Street Journal.

  • "It wasn't us who started the military action, we are trying to put an end to it," Putin said, reaffirming his argument that he sent troops to protect Moscow-backed separatist regions in Ukraine, which have fought Ukrainian forces in the conflict that erupted in 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
  • "All our action has been aimed at helping people living in the Donbas," he said. "It's our duty and we will fulfill it until the end."

  • "Russia has resisted the economic, financial and technological aggression of the West. I'm sure that we haven't lost anything and we won't lose anything. The most important gain is the strengthening of our sovereignty, it's an inevitable result of what's going on."
  • "The world mustn't be founded on the diktat of one country that deemed itself the representative of the almighty or even higher and based its policies on its perceived exclusivity,” said Putin, emphasizing that Russia will keep protecting its sovereignty in the face of what he described as an attempt by the US and its allies to preserve their global domination.
  • "An attempt to limit prices by administrative means is just ravings, it's sheer nonsense. ... If they try to implement this dumb decision, it will entail nothing good for those who will make it," Putin said of Western attempts to cap prices for Russian oil and gas, calling the idea "stupid." "The demand is so high on global markets that we won't have any problem selling it."
  • "It's just a swindle, a boorish and arrogant attitude toward those partners for whose sake all this was allegedly done," Putin said, alleging Ukraine's grain was not heading to the World Food Program but was instead being kept by the West. "What we are seeing is another blatant deception. It’s a deception of the international community, a deception of partners in Africa, in other countries that are in dire need of food." (The Journal pushes back on the allegation here.)

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