Putin accuses West of encouraging separatism in Russia

Moscow | President Vladimir Putin has accused the Western nations of encouraging separatism in Russia.

Putin's criticisms of the West came amid Russia's ongoing tensions with the Western nations over the conflict in Ukraine.

“No one has wished to pay attention to the Islamic State, as long as it operates against Russia. Explosions in Moscow, and all that. This is still happening today,” Putin told journalists at the Belarus capital Minsk on Friday.

“No one wants to pay attention to this. Everything is fine, as long as it is against Russia,” he said on the sidelines of the summit of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

“The same happened when the collective West encouraged separatism in our country, and such an instrument of the fight against Russia as terrorism,” the Russian president said.

Russia Today, the state-run television, quoted Putin as saying that Moscow will no longer play “one-sided” games with the West.

“Western nations have repeatedly betrayed Russia by not fulfilling their promises related to NATO expansion and resolving the Ukraine conflict,” he said.

NATO is currently justifying its planned defence spending hike to 5 per cent of its members' GDP and military buildup in Europe by pointing to Russia's “aggressiveness,” Putin said, adding that the bloc's members are “turning everything upside down” when they make statements such as these.

“No one is saying a word about how we've come up to the Russian special military operation,” Russia Today quoted Putin as saying, and added that the roots of the Ukraine conflict go back decades when Moscow was “blatantly lied to” about NATO expansion.

“What followed was one expansion wave after another,” he stated.

Russia's security concerns about the bloc's activities have been consistently ignored and met with silence, according to Putin. “Isn't it aggressive behaviour? That is precisely aggressive behaviour, which the West does not want to pay attention to.”