“I think they sit there across the pond in the U.S., sometimes it seems … they feel like they’re in a lab and they’re running all sorts of experiments on the rats without understanding consequences of what they’re doing,” Putin told a group of reporters. “Why would they do that? Nobody can explain it.”…

Putin also addressed the market and economic reaction to the situation in Ukraine saying, “of course internal affairs always — and politics — always have some effect on the markets, money,” but said he thought it was “temporary.”

“Markets were nervous even before the events in Ukraine started, before the situation escalated,” Putin said. “This is mostly [due] to the steps taken by the Fed[eral Reserve] in the U.S.”