President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of exploiting the Ukraine crisis to undermine Russia, saying in a key speech that Crimea had "sacred" significance for Russia.
Addressing hundreds of dignitaries, MPs and officials on Thursday in his annual state of the nation address at the Kremlin, Putin said however that Russia would not sever ties with the West despite raging confrontation with Brussels and Washington over the Ukraine conflict.
"Every time someone believes Russia has become too strong, independent, these instruments get applied immediately," Putin said, referring to sanctions.
The West "would have thought up some other excuse to contain Russia's growing possibilities", failing the current tension over Crimea and Ukraine, Putin said.
But the Russian strongman dismissed Russia's mounting economic troubles as the economy slides into recession under the pressure of Western sanctions and falling oil prices.
"We are ready to take upon any challenge and win."
Employing extremely yemotional language, Putin said that Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in March, had a "sacred" signficance for Russia, comparing it to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
"That is how we will treat this," Putin said.
"From now and forever."
He said Russia would not scale back its ties with the West despite bitter confrontation over the Ukraine crisis which saw Brussels and Washington slap several rounds of sanctions against Moscow this year.
"Under no circumstances are we going to scale back our ties with Europe, America, at the same time we will revive and expand traditional ties with the south of the American continent, will continue cooperation with Africa, with countries in the Middle East," he said.
He added that Russia would not get sucked into a new arms race but insisted that the country's army was ready to deflect any attack.
He announced a number of economic measures aimed at improving conditions for business and demanded officials take action to halt the rouble collapse.
"I ask the Bank of Russia and the government to carry out tough coordinated actions to discourage the so-called speculators from trading on the fluctuations of the Russian currency," he said.
On Monday, the beleaguered rouble suffered its biggest one-day fall since the 1998 financial meltdown after oil prices sank further.
The rouble has declined by 60 per cent against the dollar since the start of the year, and is down by some 45 per cent against the euro.
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