Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of endangering global security by imposing a "unilateral diktat" on the rest of the world and shifted blame for the Ukraine crisis onto the West.
In a 40-minute diatribe against the West that was reminiscent of the Cold War and underlined the depth of the rift between Moscow and the West, Putin also denied trying to rebuild the Soviet empire at the expense of Russia's neighbors.
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Putin said on Thursday that Russia had helped Ukraine's former president Viktor Yanukovich to flee to Russia in February after he was toppled in violent street protests in Kiev.
"I will say it openly—he asked to be driven away to Russia. Which we did," Putin told a meeting with political scholars.
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