Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine was not the cause of global economic troubles, instead blaming Western countries for using the situation to cover up their own mistakes. “What is happening is not the result of recent months, much less the result of a special military operation that Russia is conducting in the Donbas,” Putin said referring to the predominantly Russia-speaking region of Eastern Ukraine. “The rising prices, inflation, the problem with foods, prices for fuel.. are the result of systematic mistakes in the economic policy of the current US administration and European bureaucracy,” Putin said in televised remarks at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Moscow’s military action became a “lifeline” for Western countries “that allows them to blame their own miscalculations on others, in this case, on Russia,” he added.