Russian President Vladimir Putin was recently interviewed by German newspaper BILD where he talked candidly about the deteriorating relations between Russia and the West. In the interview, Putin criticises sanctions against Russia as being designed push Russia into a war, saying that the West has used Ukraine to further a geopolitical agenda with Russia. Sputniknews.com reports: “The sanctions of the West are designed not to help Ukraine, but push Russia back geopolitically. They are foolish and harm both sides,” the Russian President said during the interview, calling Western sanctions “a theater of absurd.” Citing this statement, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote in its article that it does not see any reconciliation tendencies in West-Russia relations. However, the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti on the contrary viewed the interview as Putin’s attempt to approach the West, while US magazine Wall Street Online praised Putin’s positive comment about German Chancellor Angela Merkel whom he called “a very open person.” During the interview, Putin mentioned that he trusts German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, in his opinion, is actually struggling to resolve the current crisis. Deutsche Welle and the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung stressed in their reports that Vladimir Putin is continuing his cooperation with Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad. “Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to view Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a legitimate ruler [...]