INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday promised to make Russia a "sovereign, self-sufficient" power in the face of the West, in his
first campaign speech before running again for president in a March election.Putin, in power since 2000, will stand for president in March,
in a vote with no real opposition that is expected to prolong his rule until at least 2030.The vote will come just over two years since he
launched Moscow's Ukraine offensive, prompting huge rounds of Western sanctions on Russia."We must remember and never forget and tell our
children: Russia will be either a sovereign, self-sufficient state, or it will not be there at all," Putin said during a congress of the
in the Kremlin."We will only make decisions ourselves without foreign tips from abroad," Putin told United Russia members, to
said.He accused the West of wanting to "sow internal troubles" in Russia."But such tactics did not work," he said.The longtime Kremlin
leader said "we still have a lot to do for the interests of Russia" and that the country faced "historic tasks."All of Putin's political
opponents are either in jail or in exile and Moscow has banned criticism of its Ukraine campaign.
