Putin: Western countries learnt nothing from Afghanistan debacle

“We see, on the one hand, that many of our partners are saying… we were wrong, we shouldn’t have behaved like that in Afghanistan. However, they continue to behave like that in other parts of the globe,” Putin told an investment forum on Tuesday.

The United States and its Western allies have been widely criticized for their 20-year war in Afghanistan which wreaked havoc on the country and left a large number of Afghans dead but failed to achieve its stated goals.

The US-led forces were also sharply denounced for their chaotic withdrawal in August with some describing it as a terrible end to a catastrophic war.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Putin said U.S. government policies are hurting the dollar’s position internationally and Russia has to give up the use of the U.S. currency because of those policies.

A number of countries around the world, including Russia, China, India, Turkey and Iran, use their national currencies instead of the U.S. dollar in their trade, and this is spreading to more countries.

The Russian president also said that Russia does not intend to isolate itself by building an economic fortress to live inside, and that the Russian government is rather working to enhance its economic independence.