Vladimir Putin’s chilling warning to ‘scum’ West

Vladimir Putin has said the western world’s “attempt to have global dominance” is coming to end as he sent an ominous message to Russian “traitors”.

Vladimir Putin has sent a chilling message to the West. Picture: AFP

Vladimir Putin has sent a chilling warning to the West and Russian oligarchs telling “scum” traitors that Russians will “spit them out like a midge that flew into their mouths” – as he claimed Western “attempts to have global dominance” is coming to an end.

Mr Putin, speaking in a televised address from the Kremlin nearly three weeks into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, warned the West would use “those who earn their money here, but live over there” as a “fifth column” to “divide our society”.

“I do not judge those with villas in Miami or the French Riviera. Or who can’t get by without oysters or foie gras or so-called ‘gender freedoms.’ The problem is they mentally exist there, and not here, with our people, with Russia,” Putin said.

Vladimir Putin has claimed that time is up on the West’s global dominance. Picture: AFP

The Russian leader said Western sanctions had “one aim: the destruction of Russia”.

He compared the avalanche of Western sanctions to anti-Semitic violence by fascists.

“The West dropped its mask of civility and began to act belligerently. It begs a comparison to the anti-Semitic pogroms” of Nazis, he said.

Putin claimed that the West sought to divide Russian society, railing against a “fifth column” that was “mentally” in the West.

“Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from traitors and just spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew into their mouth,” he said.

“The West will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on traitors … to divide our society ... to provoke civil confrontation … to strive to achieve its aim. And there is one aim – the destruction of Russia.”

Ukrainian evacuees walk at the Ukrainian-Romanian border in Siret, northern Romania. More than three million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion, Picture: AFP

Putin also called on Russians to “mobilise” in order to overcome difficulties related to the massive sanctions imposed on the country.

“Yes, it is not easy for us now,” Putin acknowledged.

“But this economic blitzkrieg against Russia has failed.”

He announced an “increase of all social payments in the near future” and said the Russian economy had “all the necessary resources to solve long-term tasks”.

“The current situation is, of course, a test,” the longtime leader said. “I am sure that we will pass it with dignity and hard work. We will overcome these difficulties,” he said.

He also sought to reassure Russian private companies, saying they played a “key role in overcoming the current issues”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made an impassioned plea to the US, invoking the September 11 attacks. Picture: AFP

Putin promised “maximum entrepreneurial freedom”, ordering his government to “remove administrative barriers” in an economy largely dominated by the state.

He alleged that the Russian army’s operation in Ukraine was unfolding “successfully”.

“We will not allow Ukraine to serve as a springboard for aggressive actions against Russia,” he said.

He claimed Western leaders gave him “no option to resolve the process in a peaceful way”.

Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 despite Western leaders warning him of massive sanctions.

He claimed that the conflict was merely a pretext for the West to impose sanctions because “they just don’t want a strong and sovereign Russia” and insisted the ‘military operation’ in Ukraine is going to plan despite his soldiers’ advance remaining largely stalled on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a warning for the West and for Russian “traitors”. Picture: AFP

But he also told Russians, in words ironically reminiscent of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speeches, that “we are fighting for our sovereignty and the future of our children’.

It is the latest in the propaganda pushed by Moscow in a bid to justify their invasion of Ukraine to Russian citizens – including claims the war is about ‘de-nazifying’ the country and preventing a genocide of minorities waged by Kyiv.

Putin spoke as Mr Zelensky spoke to US politicians in a landmark virtual address to Congress in which he invoked Pearl Harbour, the 9/11 attacks and Martin Luther King Jr as he called for greater Western intervention against Russia.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, a new slew of allegations of war crimes were hurled at Putin after video of an attack that was later confirmed by Ukraine’s prosecutor general showed at least 10 civilians gunned down while they were queueing for bread outside Chernihiv.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general confirmed in a statement the attack by Russian forces who ‘fired at people standing in line for bread near a grocery store.’

New drone footage appeared to show Russian soldiers executing a lone Ukrainian civilian as he held his hands up to surrender on a highway west of Kyiv last week.