Aggressive U.S. tactics such as a campaign against Chinese telecoms firm Huawei will lead to trade wars, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

In some of his strongest words on the subject, Putin accused Washington of "unbridled economic egoism," singling out U.S. efforts to thwart a Russian gas pipeline to Europe and a U.S. campaign to persuade countries to bar Huawei, the leading Chinese global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices.

"States which previously promoted free trade with honest and open competition have started speaking the language of trade wars and sanctions, of open economic raiding using arm-twisting and scare tactics, of eliminating competitors using so-called non-market methods," said Putin.

"Look for example at the situation around Huawei which they are trying not to just squeeze out, but to unceremoniously push out of the global market. It's already being called the first technological war of the emerging digital era in some circles."

The world risked slipping into an era when "general international rules will be exchanged for the laws of administrative and legal mechanisms ... which is how the United States is unfortunately behaving, spreading its jurisdiction over the whole world," added Putin.

Despite Washington asking countries to reject Huawei technology in the development of new mobile phone networks, Huawei is still building relationships with countries, companies and organizations all over the world.

On Friday, Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao told journalists that the government will not exclude Chinese telecom company Huawei Technologies Co from operating a fifth-generation (5G) mobile telecoms network in Latin America's largest economy.

(With input from Reuters)