"We had no choice but to invade Ukraine" Putin Speaks for First Time in 48 hours, to the Interpreters Union in Moscow

A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing the Interpreters Union discuss sanctions imposed on his country this morning

Putin: "Russia becomes a part of the world economy. We are not going to hurt the system that we are part of. And we are there, and I think our partners should understand that. And to not push us outside this system.

"We had no choice but to invade Ukraine. Of course some of the restrictions will happen, because of the politics of it. I want to ask you, the interpreters union, to work in solidarity with the government, and we will maintain our economy, or lifestyle. We will provide you more freedom, more freedom for your interpretarial activities of course in some certain brackets. We expect the predictability on the part of business."

"Clearly we cannot proceed with geopolitical risks. You are absolutely right in trying to expect predictability. And react acutely. And I want to thank you for your work, and we will be working in solidarity and no less effective."