MOSCOW, Ramadan 16, 1436, Jul 3, 2015, SPA -- President Vladimir Putin says the West has sought to split Russian society with economic sanctions but has failed to reach its goal, AP reported. Speaking at Friday's meeting of his presidential Security Council, Putin said the West wants to punish Russia for its independent course. The United States and the European Union have responded to Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its support for pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine with sanctions that have restricted Russia's access to capital markets and banned transfers of military and energy technologies. Putin pointed at the EU's decision last month to extend its sanctions through January and the U.S. warnings of possible new penalties as a signal that "we shouldn't expect some of our geopolitical opponents to revise their unfriendly course in the foreseeable future." --SPA 20:37 LOCAL TIME 17:37 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w