Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview just before the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, declared that the "liberal idea" is "obsolete" and praised President Donald Trump for trying to stop migrants from entering the United States at the Mexican border.
"This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done, that migrants can kill, plunder, and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected," Putin told The Financial Times in a wide-ranging interview. "Every crime must have its punishment. The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population."
He went on to further slam liberals, saying they "cannot simply dictate anything to anyone, just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades," and lambasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel for admitting more than one million refugees to Germany, mostly from Syria.
Putin also in the interview called special counsel Robert Mueller's conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election "mythical interference," and labeled the growing tensions between the United States and Iran as "explosive."
The situation with Iran and the growing U.S.-China trade war are because of American unilateralism, he added.
Putin also said he's concerned there could be a new nuclear arms race between his country and the United States.
"The Cold War was a bad thing," he said, "but there were at least some rules that all participants in international communication more or less adhered to or tried to follow. Now, it seems that there are no rules at all."
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