Read in Catalan

The president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, on the topic of Catalonia, has said in a press conference in Sochi that Europe "should have thought about it earlier (...) when these processes were starting to appear". Putin's comments came after he recognised that the question "is an internal matter" for Spain.

The president was especially critical of the EU, accusing them of having "double standards" after supporting Kosovo breaking away from Serbia. In his opinion, this represents "a serious threat to the stable development of Europe". He said that any political revolution is the result of a "lack of responsibility" by some leaders and "short-sighted policies" and so accused EU member states of thus having fomented "an increase in separatism in Europe".

The Russian president believes that his country and the USA have a great responsibility in the world currently, being the "largest nuclear powers".