If Ukraine is given long-range weapons like Tomahawk cruise missiles to strike deep inside Russia, Moscow’s response will be “overwhelming, stunning”, President Vladimir Putin said in his televised remarks on the sidelines of the XVII Congress of the Russian Geographical Society here on Thursday.

Putin was responding to reporters on the cancellation of the Budapest summit and fresh sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil corporations, and the possibility of Zelensky getting long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory.

He described the latest sanctions as yet another attempt to pressure Russia.

“Not a single self-respecting nation can bow to outside pressure, especially a nation like Russia,” Putin said, reminding that most of the American sanctions on Russia were imposed in Trump’s first term in office.

Putin said it was Trump who proposed a meeting in Budapest during their phone conversation on October 16, “we presume that it is not cancellation but postponement”.

“We believe a dialogue is better than a dispute, a war,” Putin said, indicating behind-the-scenes contacts are being maintained by both sides. He warned that US sanctions on Russian crude will hit back American consumers, who will feel the pinch with skyrocketing global oil prices, as a crucial vote (series of elections from congress to gubernatorial polls) awaits Trump.

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