Russia's Vladimir Putin: Liberalism 'outlived its purpose'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made headlines after an interview with the FT during which he said that liberalism had become obsolete.

Liberal ideas about refugees, migration and LGBT issues were now opposed by "the overwhelming majority of the population", he told the FT.

Even some Western powers had privately admitted that multiculturalism was "no longer tenable", he said.

But the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, was one of those who criticised his comments, saying: "Whoever claims that liberal democracy is obsolete also claims that freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete."