‘You misspoke’: Vladimir Putin chides official who said Russia not best country

Russian President Vladimir Putin sternly scolded a Kremlin official who implied that Russia wasn’t the best country in the world during a recent meeting.

In a video of the exchange shared on social media with English subtitles, the official Robert Urazov, head of the Kremlin’s Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) suggested that other nations were “the best in the world.”

To this, Vladimir Putin responded, “As you were speaking just now, you said this phrase: ‘In other countries, the best in the world. And you went on. So the best country in the world is Russia. I hope you simply misspoke.”

The video was shared by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Urazov can be seen giving a nervous smile before the video ends.

Kremlin earlier said that the purpose of the meeting chaired by Putin was to establish a stronger domestic market for Russian companies, Newsweek reported.

During the meeting, Vladimir Putin alluded to companies in Russia leaving the country due to Western sanctions amid Ukraine invasion saying that the companies didn’t want to leave, but had to do so under direction from their respective governments, Newsweek reported quoting Kremlin’s statement.

“Perhaps some people thought that all this would collapse and fall apart in our hands. But nothing like this is happening—nothing has collapsed and nothing is falling apart. Our companies, our businesspeople are picking up these companies or even branches and continuing this work with success,” Vladimir Putin said.

“Naturally, we should be striving for this because being limited to the domestic market is not the best scenario,” he added as per the statement.