Putin:

"The West decided: the Soviet Union is gone, so why should we follow the rules when it comes to Russia, which doesn’t possess the same potential power the USSR once had? Now we’ll just snip-snip here and there, carve things out the way we like, and live by the rules we've made for ourselves — ignoring Russia’s interests.

It became clear that unless we assert ourselves as an independent, sovereign nation capable of defending our own future, no one will take us seriously," Putin said.

War crimes, military aggression, blackmail, espionage, meddling - Russian methods of "assertion".
https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1944671210375180316

https://litter.catbox.moe/yecdgo8dm8np5tti.mp4