President Putin calls Russia's opponents 'idiots'

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Tass

At a meeting of the Council on International Relations, Russian President Putin shared: "Our opponents, those I mentioned before, those with neo-colonial thinking, idiots, in fact do not understand that it is this diversity that makes us stronger. And they are counting in vain on the effectiveness they are trying to achieve."

The Russian leader stressed that calls to split Russia into dozens of small state entities are selfish and related to interests. Mr. Putin said that Russia's opponents want to exploit, and have no other goals.

"I have said before that those who are trained in neo-colonial ideas are idiots, and they will take second place in the competition of idiots. Why only second place? Yes, simply because they are idiots," said Russian President Putin.

Mr. Putin also added that the Russian people clearly realize that it is unity that makes the country strong and invincible.

Earlier this year, in his State of the Nation Address on January 20, President Putin pointed out that "the West's goal is to weaken, divide and ultimately destroy Russia." The Russian leader even said that the West "directly said this in 1991, that they could split the Soviet Union, and now the time has come to split Russia into several hostile zones."