Putin Blames US "Unilateral Diktat" For Escalating Conflicts

Moscow (Alliance News) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the US of aggravating conflicts around the world by unilaterally imposing its will on others in a speech that highlighted the deepest divide between Moscow and Washington since the end of the Cold War.
"Is US exceptionalism, the way they realise their leadership, really a blessing?" he asked during a speech to international scholars in Sochi that was broadcast live on television.
"Does their meddling in all global affairs bring peace, calm and prosperity?" he asked.
Putin argued that the US "unilateral diktat" was backfiring.
"Instead of solving conflicts, there is escalation; instead of sovereign stable states, there is a growing space of chaos; instead of democracy, there is support for altogether dubious folks, from open neo-Nazis to Islamist radicals," Putin complained.
Russia charges that Ukraine's new Western-leaning leadership is based on ultranationalist elements, and Moscow has accused Washington of teaming up with Islamists in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Putin went on to argue that the US was unable to mend the messes it has created. "The genie is out of the bottle," Putin said. "It looks like the very authors of the manageable chaos don't know what to do with it."
Russian officials regularly criticize US-led military interventions like those in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya as creating more instability.
In reaction, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington remains "committed to upholding Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
"The US does not seek confrontation with Russia, but we cannot and will not compromise on the principles on which security in Europe and North America rest," she said. "We've said repeatedly we would be firm about principles at stake."
She noted that the US and Russia have been able to work together on other issues including destroying nuclear stockpiles and removing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons.
"We're hopeful that we'll be able to continue to do that, while we still certainly have disagreements on some issues," she said.
The Russian president also accused Washington of creating "outside enemies" to bolster its global dominance.
"It turns out that a unilateral world is uncomfortable and hard to control for the so-called self-declared leader himself," he said in a thinly veiled attack on President Barack Obama's foreign policy.
"What we are seeing now is attempts to carve up the world, to draw dividing lines and hammer together coalitions that are not for but against something and the creation of an enemy like it was in the years of the Cold War," he said.
However, Putin also said that the US posed no threat to Russia.
Many of Putin's accusations resemble those levelled by Western governments at Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, which has sent Russia's relations with the West to post-Cold War lows.
Washington, the EU and Ukraine accuse Moscow of inflaming and supporting the pro-Russian separatist uprising in the country's east with weapons, volunteers and regular troops.
Moscow denies the charges and argues that the West backed a violent putsch in Kiev in February when Moscow-friendly then-president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia.
Putin reiterated that Russia won't change its policies over Ukraine despite Western sanctions.
"Nobody, not even the smallest country, has ever taken a decision under the pressure of sanctions, and a country like Russia definitely won't do anything that our partners would like to see us doing," he said.