Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country did not want to isolate itself behind a new Iron Curtain, which he said would be disastrous for the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country did not want to isolate itself behind a new Iron Curtain, which he said would be disastrous for the country.

In an interview published on Sunday by TASS news agency, Putin said Moscow doesn’t want to build new fences, “And we won't do this. We understand the disastrous consequence of an Iron Curtain for us.”

"In other countries there have been periods when countries tried to barricade themselves off from the rest of the world, paying a very high price for this," Putin told TASS.

He argued that Russia "simply does not need to compete with the West" and should "peacefully carry out its agenda."

But at the same time, Putin said that he was not bothered by being personally isolated by world leaders after he faced a hostile reception at the G20 summit in Brisbane over the current crisis in Ukraine.

The Russian strongman said he was not interested in the opportunity "to slap each other on the shoulder, call each other friends, go on visits to each other and go to the G8" if world leaders did not take Russia's position into account.

"I didn't become president of a country to satisfy my personal ambitions. It's absolutely no use to me, if they neglect Russia's interests. That means then we won't go to visit them, but meet at other forums, in a business-like atmosphere," Putin said.