In an annual speech ranging from economy to school tests, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday evoked religious imagery and defended the Kremlin’s aggressive foreign policy as necessary for his country’s sheer survival.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March following the ouster of Pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and was later accused of supplying pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in ammunition and manpower.
Putin in his annual state-of-the-nation address at the Grand Kremlin Palace defended the annexation of Crimea, describing it as Russia’s spiritual ground, “our Temple Mount,” and added that national pride and sovereignty are “a necessary condition for survival” of Russia.
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