Putin: West is trying to break Russia up into dozens of different states

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the US-led West is trying to drive a wedge between different ethnic and national groups in Russia and break the country up into dozens of different states.

Speaking on Friday via video link at a meeting of Russia's Council on Interethnic Relations, Putin said, “They say Russia should be divided up into tens of different states.”

He added that the more sanctions the West hits Russia with, the greater the level of cohesion within Russian society.

Putin noted that the opponents of the Russian nation will continue to try to rock the country from within by using agents and marginal persons.

"Our eternal geopolitical rivals and adversaries are using their agents inside the country, as well as a partially withdrawn abroad network of agents and various kinds of marginal persons, to try and keep trying to rock our country from within," he pointed out.

"But we must remember that they [agents of Russia's opponents] exist and will continue to be used for their purposes by those who want to influence us, they will be used in their fight against Russia," he stated.

"And the struggle will continue, no doubt. Our geopolitical opponents have been doing it for centuries, they are doing it now, and they will certainly do it in the future," Putin noted. "As they say in such cases, no fantasy," he pointed out.

"They are going to improve this tool, and we have to keep this in mind," Putin concluded.

The Russian leader's remarks came as the West was making preparations to slap new sanctions against Russia over the ongoing Ukraine crisis.

Russian FM: West trying to drive wedge between Moscow, Beijing through 'unequal relations' allegation

The Russian foreign minister says the West is trying to drive a wedge between his country and China by portraying their relations in a bad light.

G7 to stiffen sanctions against Russia

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), the world's richest countries agreed on Friday to stiffen sanctions against Russia, while a draft communique to be issued after their talks in the Japanese city of Hiroshima stressed the need to reduce reliance on trade with China.

G7 leaders, who will be joined this weekend by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pledged to restrict any exports to Russia that could help the nation reach the objectives of the special military operation launched by Moscow in Donbas in late February 2022.

Zelensky is scheduled to arrive in Japan late on Saturday after taking part in the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

US: We're 'tightening the vice' on Russia.

"Today’s actions will further tighten the vice on [Russia] ... and will advance our global efforts to cut off Russian attempts to evade sanctions," US Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement accompanying a raft of new US measures.

In a similar move, G7 leaders said in a statement that the restrictions slapped on Russia would cover exports of industrial machinery, tools and technology useful to the Russian campaign in Ukraine, while efforts would be pursued to limit Russian revenues from trade in metals and diamonds.

An early draft of the final communique, which is still subject to change, said that in regard to China, which the G7 is trying to portray as a threat to global economic security, the groups need to take measures to "reduce excessive dependencies" in critical supply chains and counter "malign practices" in technology transfer and data disclosure.

The G7 statement urges the need for peace in the Taiwan Strait while calling on the Chinese leadership to persuade the Kremlin’s leaders to cease Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

However, it also stated the leaders of the G7 were in agreement that China's status as the world's second-largest economy necessitated efforts to foster their continuous cooperation with the industrial powerhouse.

"Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China, we do not seek to thwart China's economic progress and development," it stated, insisting that the G7 group wanted "stable and constructive" relations with China.

The three-day meeting of the G7, which is comprised of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, is being held in Hiroshima, Japan, where the US dropped a nuclear bomb 78 years ago at the end of World War Two, killing tens of thousands of its inhabitants and reducing the city to rubble.

Meanwhile, a raft of previous Western sanctions slapped against Russia has proved to be ineffective.

US officials admit frustrations over ineffective Russia sanctions

US officials admit to being frustrated over ineffective Russia sanctions.

Kiev has called on its Western allies to go further in isolating Russia, for example by tightening loopholes in the financial sector that allow Moscow to circumvent the sanctions.

"Certainly, sanctions can be toughened on the (Russian) banking sector," said John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine now with the Atlantic Council think tank. "They’ve gone after several of them, but others are able to operate."

The US and Britain, which lead the anti-Russia sanctions, have been targeting dozens of entities doing trade with Russia, banning imports of Russian diamonds, copper, aluminum and nickel.

The US-led Western countries, who have been providing arms and munitions to Ukraine, aim to continue to extend their all-out military and financial support to Kiev.

Russia has denounced both the bans and the West's incessant arming of Kiev as counterproductive measures that would only prolong the conflict.

Putin slams West's 'economic aggression,' vows proactive response

Russia

Last month, Putin condemned the "economic aggression" that is being practiced by the "collective West" against the country, pledging that Moscow will take "proactive" action against the West's hostile economic campaign.

Putin, who was addressing Russia’s Council of Legislators in St. Petersburg,  urged Russian lawmakers and other authorities to work "proactively" against the Western economic measures slapped on the nation rather than just "waiting out" the tough times.

He called for the creation of a "basis for the long-term, independent, and successful development of our country."

In a recent development, US President Joe Biden told fellow leaders he backed a joint effort with allies to train Ukrainian pilots on US-made F-16 fighter jets, a senior administration official said.

The US-led Western alliance is gradually arming Ukraine with advanced weapons Kiev had been asking for, such as tanks and jets, that had originally been denied.

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