ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
President Vladimir Putin blamed the West for worsening relations with Russia since the Ukraine crisis and said Moscow would not allow itself to become internationally isolated behind another "iron curtain" in a wide-ranging interview released by Russians state news agency Itar-Tass on Sunday (November 23).
"We understand the fatality of an 'iron curtain', and for us and in other countries' history were periods when countries tried to fence off from the rest of the world and had to pay a very high price for that, practically with degradation and disintegration. We will not go down this path in any case, and no one will build a wall around us. That is impossible." Putin said in the interview.
Recorded on Nov. 13, Putin also said Western sanctions against Moscow, combined with the slide in the rouble and the fall in oil prices would have no "catastrophic consequences" on Russia's economy.
"The modern world is very interdependent, b
