Vladimir Putin says 'West plundered India'; mentions genocide of Indian tribes in America

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday formally announced the annexation of four occupied regions of Ukraine - Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk. While making the announcement, he lambasted the West over various aspects, like sabotaging the Russia-built gas pipelines, seeking to make Russia its "colony", and also calling them "greedy". Putin also called out the West over their atrocities on Indians in the past. 

"The West ... began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, and then followed the slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India, of Africa, the wars of England and France against China ... What they did was hooking entire nations on drugs, deliberately exterminate entire ethnic groups," said Putin in the St George's Hall at a Kremlin ceremony where he declared the annexation of four regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia.

"For the sake of land and resources, they hunted people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice," he added. Putin further stated, "Following their goals, our geopolitical opponents - our opponents as we called them until quite recently - are prepared to put anyone, any country, in the line of fire; to turn it into the epicentre of a crisis; to provoke a "colour revolution" and unleash a bloodbath."

'West works on scenarios to stir up new conflicts'

"We have seen all this on more than one occasion. We also know that the West works on scenarios to stir up new conflicts in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) area. But we have enough of them as it is. You need but look at what's happening now between Russia and Ukraine, what's happening on the borders of some other CIS countries," Putin added. 

"Do we really want in our schools, from the elementary grades, that children were imposed perversions that lead to degradation and extinction? That they were taught that besides a man and a woman there were some other genders and were offered sex-change operations? Do we really want this for our country, for our children? All this is unacceptable for us, we have our own, different future," he said. 

Russia annexes 4 regions of Ukraine

Kremlin has annexed four captured regions. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is slated to vote on a resolution that would condemn Russia for its "illegal so-called referendums" in the four Ukrainian areas and declare that they no longer have any validity. The resolution would call on the world to not recognise any alterations to the status of Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia areas.