Anti-Western sentiment has reached historic levels in post-Soviet Russia, with a vast majority expressing negative attitudes towards the United States and the European Union, a poll showed. Relations with the United States, the former Cold War era rival, have never been particularly warm under Vladimir Putin, but ties appear to have come undone since the start of the Ukraine crisis more than a year ago, a study by the respected levada Centre pollster showed.
Putin blames conflict in Ukraine on US, allies
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the US and its allies for causing the crisis in Ukraine with their attempts to “impose their will everywhere”. The Ukrainian crisis “is the result of attempts by the United States and its Western allies who consider themselves ‘winners’ of the Cold War, imposing their will everywhere”, Putin said in an interview published by the Egyptian state-run newspaper Al-Ahram on the eve of his official visit to Egypt beginning on Monday. “On several occasions, we warned the United States and its Western partners of the dire consequences of interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine,” the Kremlin chief said. He claimed that the way to stabilise the situation in eastern Ukraine was the immediate cessation of hostilities, particularly what is called by the Ukrainian Army “anti-terrorist operations, which is nothing more than a punitive operation”.