Putin Slams US Hegemony and Blames the West for Ukraine War: A Larger Struggle Unfolds

In a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the United States for seeking to impose its crumbling hegemony across the world. He argued that the war in Ukraine is indicative of how the West has lost touch with reality. Putin stated that Russia did not initiate the conflict in Ukraine and is instead trying to bring it to an end. He accused the West, particularly the United States, of causing the war due to its hegemonic mindset and its belief in being the sole arbiter of truth. Putin questioned the right of the United States to lecture any other country.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has resulted in widespread devastation in eastern and southern Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands of casualties and a significant strain on Russia's relations with the West. While the West views the war as Moscow's biggest strategic blunder since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Western leaders express a desire to defeat Russia on the battlefields of Ukraine.

Despite a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive, Putin presents the conflict as part of a larger struggle with the United States. The Kremlin believes that the United States aims to fragment Russia, seize its abundant natural resources, and then focus on settling scores with China. Moscow's influential figures, some of whom have a background in espionage, have repeatedly warned of the potential for a Russia-NATO conflict as Western dominance wanes, Russia moves past the humiliations of the Soviet collapse, and China emerges as a superpower.