Russian President Vladimir Putin blended left-wing and right-wing themes with populism to criticize Western governments and media during a Thursday speech at the Valdai International Discussion Club annual meeting in Sochi, Russia.
Accusing Western governments, transnational corporations, and unspecified elites of hypocrisy and inconsistency in their subscription to or avoidance of international institutions and norms, Putin implied that Russia and other non-Western states had been unfairly excluded from geopolitical decision-making. Portraying Russian sovereignty as under threat by ubiquitous anti-Russian sentiment in America and the broader West is a standard narrative of the Russian president and his ideological allies.
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