Putin: our goal is to ‘take back and strengthen’
At a meeting with young entrepreneurs in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the goal of modern Russia is to "take back and strengthen."
Putin compared the current situation with the events of the Northern War (1700-1721) between Russia and Sweden and stressed that Peter I did not take anything away from the neighboring country during this period, instead "he took it back."
"Peter I waged the Northern War for 21 years," Putin explained. - It would seem that he fought with Sweden and seized something there. He didn't seize anything! He took it back!"
Putin said that it was "the entire Ladoga region" and the territory "where St. Petersburg is founded today."
Putin recalled that when Peter I founded St. Petersburg, none of the European countries recognized it as Russian capital. It was recognized as Swedish, where "from time immemorial, along with the Finno-Ugric peoples, the Slavs also lived." At the same time, "the territory was under the Russian control".
Drawing an analogy with the era of Peter the Great, Putin noted that apparently, "it also became our destiny to take back and strengthen." In his opinion, Russians will succeed in solving the current goals if they proceed from the fact that these values form "the basis of our existence."