The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, has on Sunday criticised Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, calling him ‘self-centered’. Speaking to a German newspaper interview, the spiritual leader said that Putin seemed to want to ‘rebuild the Berlin Wall’.
Pointing out that Putin had served as the President of Russia, and then as Prime Minister and then again as President, the Dalai Lama said that Putin’s attitude is ‘I, I, I’, adding that it is a bit too much, and that it is very self-centered.
The Dalai Lama had been speaking during an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
The spiritual leader was also more critical of Russia than of China. Russia has been in its worst stand-ff with Western nations since the Cold War.
The Dalai Lama said that China and Russia are two very different cases, and expressed hope that the modern world would support China become a democratic nation.
During the interview, the Dalai Lama also said that China wishes to be part of the global political system, and that it is willing to accept international rules in the long run.
He then said that he does not have the impression that the same accounts of Russia and its President Putin at the moment, adding that we had become accustomed to the fact that the Berlin Wall had fallen, but that President Putin seemed to want to rebuild the Berlin Wall, adding that Putin was hurting his own nation by doing so. He also said that isolation is ‘suicide’ for Russia.
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