October 24, 2014 - 20:42 AMT
Putin accuses U.S. of endangering global security

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday, Oct 24, of endangering global security by imposing a "unilateral diktat" on the rest of the world and shifted blame for the Ukraine crisis onto the West, Reuters reports.

He also denied trying to rebuild the Soviet empire at the expense of Russia's neighbors.

"We did not start this," Putin told an informal group of experts on Russia that includes many Western specialists critical of him, warning that Washington was trying to "remake the whole world" based on its own interests.

"Statements that Russia is trying to reinstate some sort of empire, that it is encroaching on the sovereignty of its neighbors, are groundless," he said.

Listing a series of conflicts in which he faulted U.S. actions, including Libya, Syria and Iraq, Putin asked whether Washington's policies had strengthened peace and democracy.

"No," he declared. "The unilateral diktat and the imposing of schemes (on others) have exactly the opposite effect."

Putin rejected criticism over the Ukraine crisis, in which Moscow has sided with pro-Russian armed groups in eastern Ukraine, and threw the West's criticisms of Moscow back in its face.

Repeating accusations that Western governments helped pro-Western groups stage a coup d'etat that ousted a pro-Moscow president in Kiev in February, Putin said: "No one wanted to listen to us and no one wanted to talk to us."

"Instead of a difficult but, I underline, civilized dialogue they brought about a state coup. They pushed the country into chaos, economic and social collapse, and civil war with huge losses," he said.

Dismissing U.S. and European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow as a mistake, he said: "Russia will not be posturing, get offended, ask someone for anything. Russia is self-sufficient."