‘TAKING IT BACK’: PUTIN LIKENS SELF TO RUSSIAN MONARCH PETER THE GREAT

Fri 10 June 2022:

President Putin of Russia, compared himself to Peter the Great, the 18th-century Russian king who led a conquest of the Baltic coast during his battle against Sweden.

On Thursday, as the Kremlin’s soldiers continued a grinding war of attrition in eastern Ukraine, Putin also spoke of his country’s need to “take back” territory and “defend itself.”

After visiting an exhibition in Moscow dedicated to the 350th birthday of the tsar, Putin drew parallels between Peter the Great’s founding of St Petersburg and modern-day Russia’s ambitions.

He told a group of young entrepreneurs “you get the impression that by fighting Sweden [Peter] was grabbing something. He wasn’t taking anything, he was taking it back”.

When Peter the Great founded St Petersburg and declared it the Russian capital “none of the countries in Europe recognised this territory as belonging to Russia”, Putin said.

“Everyone considered it to be part of Sweden. But from time immemorial, Slavs had lived there alongside Finno-Ugric peoples,” he added.

“It is our responsibility also to take back and strengthen,” Putin said, in an apparent reference to Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

“Yes, there have been times in our country’s history when we have been forced to retreat, but only to regain our strength and move forward,” he said.

‘Sovereign or a colony’

Following Sweden’s defeat in the Great Northern War (1700-1721), Russia became the dominant power in the Baltic Sea and a key actor in European politics.

But with Russia’s ties with the West currently shattered by the Ukraine invasion, Moscow authorities are downplaying Peter’s affinity for Europe and focusing on his role in expanding Russian territories.

While asserting Russia’s sovereignty, Putin appeared to leave the door open for additional territorial expansion.

“There is no state in between. A country is either sovereign or a colony,” he said.

“It’s impossible – do you understand – impossible to build a fence around a country like Russia. And we do not intend to build that fence,” Putin added.

Peter I reigned first as tsar and then as emperor from 1682 until his death in 1725.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent