With the whole of Russia’s elite watching enraptured in the Kremlin, Putin signed an agreement with Crimean leaders allowing the peninsula to become part of Russia. The speech will doubtless be remembered, however, for the astonishing challenge Putin made to Western countries, asserting Russia’s role as a bulwark against the dominance of the United States and Europe since the Soviet Union collapsed.
“They’re trying to drive us into a corner because we’re not hypocritical and tell it like it is,” Putin said. “But there’s a limit to everything. Today we need to stop the hysterics, reject Cold War rhetoric and recognize that Russia has national interests that need to be taken into account and respected.”
In his speech, almost certainly the most significant of his 14-year rule, Putin flatly rejected international criticism of Russia’s actions and rejected the Western hegemony of the post-Cold War era.
“Our Western partners, led by the United States of America, prefer to be guided by the principle that might is right in international politics,” Putin said. “They have come to believe they are exceptional. They think that only they can be right.
“If you press the spring too hard, it will recoil. Russia has its national interests which you need to take into account,” Putin added.
Though driven by February’s revolution in Kiev that ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych, Putin’s speech seemed born of decades of historical grievances against Russia’s great power status. He railed against “the infamous policy of containing Russia that dates back to the 18th century.” He said Crimea had been “stolen” from Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He recalled the entire list of Russia’s major disagreements with the West since he took power, starting with the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and running through the Afghan and Iraq wars through to Kosovo’s independence and the Ukrainian crisis.