Putin appears to have been totally unprepared for what Biden and the West could do. Think of the damage Sleepy Joe could have done if he wasn't so feeble-minded...so sad as Donald would say...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-being-pushed-to-collapse-by-west-vladimir-putin-aide-fears/ar-AAVrDlt?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531Russia fears its confrontation with the West over Ukraine could cause its civilization to crumble, according to a top aide to President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a concert marking the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea, on March 18, 2022 in Moscow, Russia. Vladimir Putin’s rule being pushed to destruction, Russia fears.
Vladimir Medinsky, Russia's chief negotiator in talks with Ukraine, told a meeting of an interdepartmental commission on historical education that Moscow now faces a great challenge with the West, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
At Thursday's meeting, he compared the significance of what Russia calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine and the response from Kyiv's allies to that of the Russian revolution or the breakup of the Soviet Union.
"The very existence of Russia, the Russian civilization, is at stake now. I see few precedents to this moment in history. Dark times, the event of February 1917, the fall of the USSR in 1989.
"That is what the collective West is pushing us towards. They are pushing for the collapse of a political system, of the whole country," he said according to a Newsweek translation.
What is happening in the world today "is the greatest challenge in history, and we need to act on this challenge," Medinsky added, according to the RIA Novosti report, based on a Google translation.
Russia's foreign intelligence director Sergei Naryshkin has voiced similar sentiments following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
After U.S. President Joe Biden, and leaders of other countries, implemented sanctions against Russia, Naryshkin maintained the West was trying to destroy the country.
"The masks have been dropped. The West is not just trying to surround Russia with a new Iron Curtain," Naryshkin said earlier this month, according to an Independent report.