Russian President Vladimir Putin has disagreed with U.S. President Barack Obama's statement that Russia is a regional power, and also said that he doesn't see the U.S. as a unique nation.
“That is his [Obama's] opinion, just as I know his opinion that the American nation, the United States, is exceptional. I can't agree with either of these opinions,” Putin said, according to the transcript of the second part of his interview with German newspaper Bild, published on the Kremlin's website Tuesday.
“I think the attempt to speculate about other countries in a disrespectful manner is the incorrect way to prove one's exceptionalism,” he said.
Obama described Russia as a regional power in March 2014 several days after a referendum was held in Crimea, which resulted in the peninsula becoming part of the Russian Federation.
“Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness,” Obama said, according to Reuters.
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