We shouldn’t have patted the “fifth column” on the head – Kommersant

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at an expanded board of the Ministry of Defense, said that Western countries most actively began to work in Russia “with a fifth column” immediately after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. According to him, the West made efforts to decompose the country and tried to “tear away” all the states in the post-Soviet space.

“Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, the West began to work most actively both in Russia and with our “fifth column”, around which we were jumping all the time, patting them on the head, persuading them, setting them up in some kind of patriotic mood. The enemy knew why he was doing this, and knew with whom he needed to work: with this fifth column, and with terrorist, including international, organizations, and with separatists,” said Vladimir Putin.

Previously, Director of the FSB of Russia Alexander Bortnikov stated, that the Ukrainian special services and their “Western curators” launched “ideological and recruitment indoctrination” of Russians. According to him, from the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine, young people began to be actively recruited to participate “in sabotage, terrorist and extremist activities.”