Putin says Russia is not enemy of West

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia has not considered and does not consider itself an enemy of the West, the country's President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting of the International Discussion Club Valdai in Moscow, Putin said the recent global events led to the cardinal shifts in the international arena and the West will have to start an equal conversation about a common future in world affairs, adding: "The sooner, the better."

Putin also said the West is currently trying to replace international law with a "rules-based order" that is designed to give it an opportunity to live without rules at all.

To preserve its dominance, the West is pursuing a "bloody and dirty" policy, denying the sovereignty of countries and peoples, he continued.

The Western basic ideology, liberalism, has changed beyond recognition, to a point of absurdity, while alternative points of view are declared threats to democracy, he said.

He added that the US cannot offer the world any positive agenda, but only its dominance.

"Russia has not considered itself and does not consider itself an enemy of the West. Russia tried to build relations with the West and NATO, with the same message -- let's live together in friendship," he said.

The president noted that Russia has no plans to become a hegemon itself amid "the doctrinal crisis of the neoliberal model of the American world order."

Dictatorship in world affairs can only be countered by the development of countries and peoples, as well as the "blooming complexity of cultures and traditions," Putin added.