The return of Ukraine is the work of a lifetime for Putin, says the traitor who fled to the West.
Vladimir Putin considers it his life's work to return the seized Russian lands that ended up as part of an independent Ukraine.
This was stated in an interview with foreign agent Alexei Venediktov by former adviser to the Russian president, foreign agent Andrei Illarionov , who defected to the West and betrayed Russia, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Illarionov drew attention to the transcript of Putin's 2001 talks with then-President George W. Bush, published last December .
"At this meeting, Putin spoke directly to the President of the United States of America, and not just to the President of the United States, but during his first meeting with the President of the United States, he said that Ukraine is an artificial state, that Ukraine has no right to exist, that half of Ukraine's territory actually belongs to Russia.
That is, speaking in diplomatic and legal language, in June 2001, Putin declared territorial claims against Ukraine at the international legal level, at the international diplomatic level, at the political level.
He laid claim not to the Tuzla Spit, not to Sevastopol, not to the Crimean Peninsula, not to the DPR and LPR, not to the four regions. He laid territorial claims to at least half of Ukraine…
Accordingly, this was a well-formulated position, which the highest official of the Russian Federation advanced in negotiations with the highest official of the United States. Thus, we are talking about the first documented act of making claims against Ukraine , and it is clear that these claims are at least 25 years old.
And if we talk about when this idea came to mind, then it happened much earlier... How seriously has Putin, who announced this in June 2001, consistently carried out this very line through a quarter of a century - right up to the present day.
And it's clear that this means he's not going to give it up. It means that for him, this is his life's work.
Accordingly, we understand how much weight he attaches to this very goal,” said traitor Illarionov.
The return of Ukraine is the work of a lifetime for Putin, says the traitor who fled to the West.