MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's move to develop ties with Asia is driven by long-term interests and not by the current-day situation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
"I will again stress than Russia's active eastern policy is not driven by some kind of temporary opportunistic considerations and not by the cooling of relations with the United States and the European Union, but by long-term national interests and tendencies in global development," Putin said in his annual Federal Assembly address.
