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President Vladimir Putin attacked the U.S. and Europe for backing Ukraine and said that Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed from the former Soviet republic in March, has sacred meaning as Russias Jerusalem.

As Ukrainian officials planned to pause shelling on Dec. 9, Putin said he isnt surprised by the countrys separatist conflict, given what he termed the coup and violent takeover of power in Kiev in February. He said the U.S. and European Union, who have imposed sanctions that are hobbling Russias economy over its stance on Ukraine, would have penalized his country even if the conflict hadnt broken out.

Crimea has invaluable civilizational and even sacred meaning for Russia, like the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the followers of Islam and Judaism, Putin said in his annual address to parliament and other top officials in Moscow today. And this is how we will always consider it.

The U.S. and the European Union blame Putin for stoking the conflict between Ukrainian forces and eastern pro-Russian separatists thats killed more than 4,300 people and displaced 500,000 this year. In the worst standoff between Russia and its former Cold War foes since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Putins government has also vowed to increase bomber missions to as far as the Gulf of Mexico, prompting NATO countries to reassess their military readiness.

Pedestrians pass a mural showing a map of the Crimean peninsula filled with the flag of the Russian Federation, in support of the Russian annexation, in Moscow, Russia. Close

Pedestrians pass a mural showing a map of the Crimean peninsula filled with the flag of... Read More

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Pedestrians pass a mural showing a map of the Crimean peninsula filled with the flag of the Russian Federation, in support of the Russian annexation, in Moscow, Russia.

Putin brushed off the sanctions, which have limited access to capital markets for some Russian banks and companies and blacklisted officials involved in the conflict. His government denies any involvement in Ukraine, and he said the sanctions were instead aimed at keeping Russia down.

They are not just a knee-jerk reaction on behalf of the United States or its allies to our position regarding the events and the coup in Ukraine, or even the so-called Crimean Spring, Putin said. If none of that had ever happened, they would have come up with some other excuse to try to contain Russias growing capabilities.

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