MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday criticized Europe for lack of independent foreign policy, saying it has partially transferred its sovereignty to the United States.

"The problem of Europe is that it does not have its own foreign policy ... It has transferred part of its sovereignty to NATO and the United States," Putin said in a documentary aired on the Rossiya 1 television channel.

The president urged what he called "European partners" to be more active in developing solutions to various issues, instead of simply "following orders from outside."

Meanwhile, Putin stressed that any international actions on any country should be taken with a consensus among permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, seemingly implying that the U.S.-led coalition has been launching airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria without the approval of the world body.

Commenting on the Ukraine crisis, which has caused relations between Moscow and the Western world being locked in a long winter, Putin noted that the West has no intention to protect the national interests of Ukraine, but with the aim to prevent the re-creation of the Soviet Union.

"Nobody believes us when we say Russia has no plan to re-create the Soviet Union," he said.

With regard to Kiev's recent decision to impose a moratorium on repayments of its multi-billion-U.S.-dollar debts to Russia, Putin stressed this would cause a loss of confidence from foreign partners in the country's solvency, which he said is a very bad signal. (Xinhua)