The United States is an undemocratic empire that is controlled by large American corporations and is “collapsing” economically, politically and socially, an analyst and academic in California says.
“We’re living with a problem that didn’t start in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected to President of the United States; it’s a culmination of minimally 500 years of Western European violent colonialism,” Professor Mark Mason said in an interview with Press TV on Friday.
The US poses a global threat although “it’s economically collapsing, it’s socially collapsing, it’s politically collapsing,” Mason said.
“The government of the United States is not a democracy; the policies of the United States are not controlled by the people; people have no say…it's controlled by corporate capitalism,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday slammed Washington's reliance on sanctions against Moscow and other governments, insisting that such punishment tool "undermines trust in the dollar as a universal payment instrument and the main reserve currency."
"It's a typical mistake made by an empire," Putin emphasized. "An empire always thinks that it's so powerful that it can afford some mistakes and extra costs. But mistakes and costs multiply, and a moment comes when they become overwhelming in both security and economic spheres."
Putin also underlined that Russia had nothing to panic about considering its vast resources, defense capabilities, as well as "people ready to defend our sovereignty and independence."
He also hailed his country’s newly-developed hypersonic missiles that gives it a military edge, yet insisted that Moscow would only resort to using nuclear arms if targeted.
"Only when we become convinced that there is an incoming attack on the territory of Russia, and that happens within seconds, only after that we would launch a retaliatory strike," Putin emphasized.
Putin’s remarks came as Moscow’s relations with the West remain tense over the Ukrainian crisis, the foreign-sponsored war in Syria and the allegations of Russian interference in the US presidential poll in 2016.