MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin harshly assailed his opponents and accused the West of meddling in Russian politics, telling a parliamentary campaign rally Wednesday that opponents at home and abroad want to weaken the country.
Putin’s strongly worded attack on his critics came as he seeks to secure a high turnout and strong support for the dominant main pro-Kremlin party in parliamentary elections Dec. 2. Putin is leading United Russia’s ticket in what is widely seen a maneuver to retain a grip on power after he steps down next spring.
“Those who confront us need a weak and ill state. They want to have a divided society, in order to do their deeds behind its back,” Putin warned, saying a strong United Russia majority in parliament is needed to preserve his course.
Addressing thousands of backers in an event that mixed the flavors of a U.S. political convention and a Soviet-era Communist Party congress, he painted a grim picture of the turmoil in the 1990s in Russia and suggested that his Western-backed political foes were bent on turning the clock back.
“Regrettably, there are those inside the country who count on support of foreign funds and governments, and not their own people,” Putin said.
“Now, they’re going to take to the streets. They have learned from Western experts and have received some training in neighboring (ex-Soviet) republics. And now they are going to stage provocations here,” he said, raising the specter of the upheavals that brought Western-oriented leaders to power in Georgia and Ukraine.
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