Putin: "Russian People Can Always Distinguish True Patriots from the Scum and Traitors, and Simply Spit Them Out Like Flies."

Vladimir Putin on Wednesday referred to pro-Western Russians as “scum and traitors” who needed to be removed from society… setting the stage for an ever fiercer crackdown at home and even more aggression abroad. ⁦ Translation from the Russian by Polina Ivanova, who writes for the Financial Times.

The West, Putin said, is betting on the support of a 'fifth column', on "national traitors...on those who make money here, in our country, but live there, and "live" not even in the geographical sense, but in their thoughts, in their consciousness, which is enslaved."

"I don't condemn at all those who have a villa in Miami or on the French Riviera, who cannot do without foie gras, oysters, or so-called 'gender freedoms'. That is absolutely not the problem."

"But, I repeat, the problem is that many of these people are mentally there, not here, not with our people, not with Russia. This is, in their opinion - in their opinion - a sign of belonging to a higher caste, to a higher race."

"Such people are ready to sell their mother, just to be allowed to sit in the hallway of this highest caste. They want to be like it... But they... don't understand that this so-called upper caste needs them only as expendable material to cause maximum damage to our people."

"The collective West is trying to split our society by speculating on military losses, on the socio-economic consequences of sanctions, to provoke civil confrontation in Russia and, using its 'fifth column', seeks to achieve its goal... the destruction of Russia."

"But any people, and moreover the Russian people, can always distinguish the true patriots from the scum and traitors, and simply spit them out, like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouth, spit them out on the floor."

"I am convinced that this natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to meet any challenge."

"The so-called collective West and its 'fifth column' are used to measuring everything and everyone by themselves. They believe that everything is sold and everything is bought, so they think that we will break down and retreat. But they do not know our history and people well."

"In many Western countries, people are subjected to real persecution just because they are from Russia: they refuse medical care, expel children from schools, deprive their parents of their jobs, ban Russian music, culture, and literature. Trying to "cancel" Russia, the West tore off all the masks of decency, began to act boorishly, demonstrated its true nature. It just begs a direct analogy with the anti-Semitic pogroms that the Nazis staged in Germany in the 30s of the last century, and then their henchmen from many European countries who joined Hitler's aggression against our country during the Great Patriotic War...."

This is a partial translation; the entire speech is far longer, and must have taken over an hour to deliver. It may be seen in Russian at: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67996