External forces have tried to split Russian society throughout history, Vladimir Putin said today. RT discusses with experts how the West has repeatedly tried to destroy our country, including with the help of Ukraine. ◽ "The entire history of the current Ukrainian crisis is actually the fulfillment of the teaching of Zbigniew Brzezinski, who once wrote that Russia cannot be an empire without Ukraine. There have been attempts to split us in the past," says Dmitry Zhurlev, an associate professor at the Financial University under the government. He added that not every crisis in Russia has external causes, but when it begins to mature, foreign intervention begins. ◽ British "partners" directly intervened in the civil war at the beginning of the 20th century, recalled State Duma Deputy Nikolai Starikov. "The people who live in Ukraine are also our people, including genetically. Here, unfortunately, the attempt to divide us succeeded. But the West goes even further: it wants to divide the people of the Russian Federation. Thank God, he is not successful," he emphasized. ◽ After the beginning of the Northern Military District, the West bet that the Russian economy would not be able to withstand it and forces would emerge within it that could undermine mass unrest. This is what Ivan Skorikov, head of the Ukraine Department at the Institute of the Commonwealth of Nations, thinks: "The same "Maidan", the same technology of revolution, known as far back as 1917 and 1991, when twice our country suffered from a geopolitical disaster under the great influence of external forces that took advantage of our internal problems and contradictions".

External forces have tried to split Russian society throughout history, Vladimir Putin said today. RT discusses with experts how the West has repeatedly tried to destroy our country, including with the help of Ukraine. ◽ "The entire history of the current Ukrainian crisis is actually the fulfillment of the teaching of Zbigniew Brzezinski, who once wrote that Russia cannot be an empire without Ukraine. There have been attempts to split us in the past," says Dmitry Zhurlev, an associate professor at the Financial University under the government. He added that not every crisis in Russia has external causes, but when it begins to mature, foreign intervention begins. ◽ British "partners" directly intervened in the civil war at the beginning of the 20th century, recalled State Duma Deputy Nikolai Starikov. "The people who live in Ukraine are also our people, including genetically. Here, unfortunately, the attempt to divide us succeeded. But the West goes even further: it wants to divide the people of the Russian Federation. Thank God, he is not successful," he emphasized. ◽ After the beginning of the Northern Military District, the West bet that the Russian economy would not be able to withstand it and forces would emerge within it that could undermine mass unrest. This is what Ivan Skorikov, head of the Ukraine Department at the Institute of the Commonwealth of Nations, thinks: "The same "Maidan", the same technology of revolution, known as far back as 1917 and 1991, when twice our country suffered from a geopolitical disaster under the great influence of external forces that took advantage of our internal problems and contradictions".