Vladimir Putin visits Russia Far Eastern Chukotka Region

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid an unexpected visit to Russia’s easternmost region of Chukotka Wednesday, two months ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

It’s Putin’s first ever visit to the region, where he inspected a year-round greenhouse and talked to local residents.

Commenting about the threats that Russian volunteers - who are helping soldiers fighting in Ukraine - receive online, Putin said that those who send them “sit abroad” and should better think about themselves.

“It doesn’t scare us,” Putin said. “They all have way too many problems, incomparable with our problems. Even the leading economies of Europe are going through difficult times. We have growth, and they have decline.”

Russia has proved to the whole world that it’s “a self-sufficient country in every sense of the word, strong and moving forward,” he stressed, calling it the main result of the last year.