Putin was responding to comments by US president Joe Biden in an interview with CBS News, where he said: “Imagine what happens if we, in fact, unite all of Europe and Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he’s been causing”.

In a brief interview aired on state television during a summit in the Chinese capital, Putin said: “This is not about me personally. This is about the interests of the country. And it is impossible to suppress the interests of Russia. They have to be taken into account.”

Putin said that both Biden, with whom he has had an antagonistic relationship since the US president took office in 2021, and the wider American political elite needed to learn to “respect” Russia.

He said: “This applies not only to President Biden, but also to the US political elites as a whole. You must learn to respect others, and then there will be no need to suppress anyone.”