Putin Looks to 'Redeem and Reinforce' Russia

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that when Peter the Great founded his new capital St Petersburg no European country recognised it as Russia.

During a meeting on Thursay with young entrepreneurs in Moscow he said:"Everybody recognized it as Sweden. And Slavic people have always lived there along with Finno-Ugric people, and the territory was under the control of Russian state."

Putin also offered a theory that "a country is either sovereign or a colony" and there is nothing in-between.

A country is either sovereign or a colony, whatever you want to call that colony. I won't be giving any examples now not to offend anybody, but if a country or a group of countries is incapable of making sovereign decisions, then it's a colony," he said.

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