Russian President Vladimir Putin described what he presented as a recurring Western strategy toward Russia during a meeting with graduates of higher military education institutions.
Putin argued that Western countries first generate threats to Russia and compel it to take measures for self-defence and protection. He said those same measures are then portrayed as evidence of Russian wrongdoing.
In his account, the sequence allows Western governments to justify the continuation of what he called aggressive policies and actions against Moscow. The statement presented Russian responses as measures of self-defence and protection.
Putin said the pattern was familiar to the Russian leadership and connected it to historical narratives surrounding the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. He claimed that attempts were later made to portray the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin as aggressors.
The Russian president added that versions of that interpretation still circulate in what he described as pseudo-scientific circles. His remarks placed the current dispute with Western countries within a broader historical argument about responsibility, threat perception and political justification.
Putin concluded by restating Russia's support for equal and indivisible security for all countries. He said that objective could be achieved only through the formation of a multipolar world order.
