‘A country of talented, driven people’: Putin’s praise for India on Russia’s Unity Day

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday (November 4) was all praises for India and its “talented people” and said that the country was brimming with potential which will lead to outstanding results in terms of development.

“Let’s look at India: a talented, very driven people with such a drive for internal development. It will certainly achieve outstanding results. India will achieve outstanding results in terms of its development. There are no doubts. And almost one-and-a-half billion people. Now that’s potential,” Putin was quoted as saying by Reuters.

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The Russian president said it in his speech on the occasion of Russia’s Unity Day on November 4.

Talking a dig at European powers, Putin said they have achieved prosperity by robbing nations like Africa during the colonial times – a fact that European academics admit now.

“To a great extent, the level of prosperity that has been achieved in former colonial powers is grounded in the robbery of Africa. Everyone knows that. Yes, actually, the researchers in Europe don’t hide this. That’s how it is. They say it was built on the grief and suffering of the African peoples to a significant extent- I’m not saying entirely no – but to a significant extent the prosperity of the colonial powers (was built that way). This is an obvious fact. Robbery, slave trade – of course,” he said.

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He said that Russia despite a part of Europe is a “multinational” and “multi-confessional state” has a “unique “civilisation and culture.”

“Russia is, in a significant way, part of this culture, based on Christianity,” he said, adding that “Russia formed as a united major world power…by becoming a major power as a multinational state and a multi-confessional one, too. And it’s there that its uniqueness lies. It is truly a unique civilisation and a unique culture,” he said.