"We have moved back from the edge of the abyss," Putin said. "I have done everything to ensure that Russia is an independent and sovereign power that is able to make decisions in its own interests," Putin said. He said that the West had patronised Yeltsin initially but then had changed its tune once Yeltsin spoke up against Western actions such as the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not see the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad as a defeat for his country's military, which has been stationed there since 2015. "They want to pass off the events in Syria as a defeat for Russia.