Russia has no unfriendly states, only unfriendly elites — Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that Russia will not cancel the world culture, like the West does with the Russian culture, APA reports citing TASS.

"There are many [world culture] achievements in the countries that we call unfriendly today. Although, we have no unfriendly states, we have unfriendly elites in these states," the head of state said during a meeting with the cultural workers in the Tver Region.

He underscored: "As for the culture of these countries, we have never attempted to do anything like what the heads of those states tried to do to the Russian culture. On the contrary, we believe that the Russian culture is a part of the world culture, and we are proud to be a part of it; we view our culture in the context of the world [culture], we do not exclude anything from that context."

The president added that "there are many good things in the European culture, noting that "there are many problems in the today’s life."

"And we have a unique opportunity to look what happens and how it happens in the post-industrial society in the world, and to react to it accordingly, and on time, too," Putin underscored.