Putin reveals his imperialist goal: reclaim land 2:20
(CNN) --
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the end of "the era of the unipolar world" in a combative speech lashing out at Western countries at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on Friday.
"When they won the Cold War, the United States declared themselves God's representative on earth, people who have no responsibilities, only interests. They have declared those interests to be sacred. Now they are one-way, which makes the world unstable," he said. Putin to the audience.
Putin's speech at the annual conference in the western Russian city was seen as an opportunity to let the world know his thoughts, some four months after his war with Ukraine.
Once the president of Russia took the stage, he wasted no time joking and went straight to attacking the United States and its allies.
"They live in the past on their own, under their own illusions... They think they... have won and everything else is a colony, a backyard. And the people who live there are second-class citizens," he said. , adding that Russia's "special operation" — the phrase the Russian government uses to describe its war against Ukraine — has become a "lifeline for the West to blame all problems on Russia."
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The veteran Russian leader also blamed the West for trying to harm the Russian economy, calling sanctions on Moscow "crazy" and "reckless."
The much-hyped speech was delayed by more than 90 minutes due to a "massive" cyberattack.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in an impromptu conference call that the speech was postponed due to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against conference systems.
"Unfortunately, today, due to massive DDoS attacks on the forum system, the accreditation and admission base was disabled," Peskov said.
Peskov told CNN in a text message that the technical specialists working to fix the systems "will need 30-40 minutes" to restore the database.
Putin's speech at the annual conference in the western Russian city is seen as an opportunity for the world to learn about the Russian leader's thinking four months into his war against Ukraine.
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Russia's president has long framed his decision to launch an invasion of Ukraine as a response to Kyiv's growing diplomatic and security ties with the West.
Last week, he hinted that his goal in Ukraine is the restoration of Russia as an imperial power.
Just before Putin's speech on Friday, Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev told CNN that he believed Russia's actions in Ukraine "prevented a major war, probably a third world war."
"If you take into account the prospect that it could have come true, that Ukraine would become part of NATO," said Kosachev, who is the deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council.
From left to right, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, German Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis meet for a working session at the Mariinsky Palace, Kyiv, Ukraine , June 16.
(Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images)
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"The member states have their point of view on Crimea, they have their point of view on matters that do not involve NATO, the United States of America included in the military conflict with Russia. And now, this military conflict is avoided and this is the end of the story and this is the only good news".
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The European Commission announced on Friday that it was recommending Ukraine and neighboring Moldova as EU candidate states, with commission chief Ursula von der Leyen saying Ukrainians are "ready to die" for the European perspective.
Peskov said the announcement required Moscow's "closest attention."
"We all know about the escalation in Europe and the discussions about strengthening the EU defense component. So there are different transformations that we see," he said early Friday during a routine daily call with reporters.
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