In a speech delivered at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, Putin portrayed Russia as a champion of emerging powers in the new multipolar world, which the United States and the rest of the West should respect equally. asked to start. He also sought common ground with the right wing of the West, saying Russia is a champion of traditional Christian values as society loses its way.
“I am convinced that sooner or later both the new center of the multipolar world order and the Western powers will have to start talking on equal terms about our common future,” Putin said. good,” he said. He added that he believed the West had lost its control and was “rapidly becoming a minority on the world stage.”
In reality, it is Russia that has become deeply isolated as a result of Putin’s brutal aggression and his attempt to illegally annex four regions of Ukraine in violation of international law. Earlier this month, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly rejected Putin’s annexation and called for a change of course. The result was 143-5 with 35 withdrawals. Four countries, Belarus, Nicaragua, North Korea and Syria, sided with Russia.
The Kremlin had boasted that future generations would “read it over and over again”, but on Thursday Putin met with a mixed crowd of guests from India, Pakistan, China and Indonesia to join Moldovan fringe parents. I spoke with politicians in the Kremlin and asked him flattering questions about his vision for a post-conflict American hegemonic world. There were few Westerners in the audience.
Despite basing his confrontation with the West on his foreign policy and daily points of contention, Putin said that Russia does not fundamentally see itself as an enemy of the West, instead calling it a “strange opposes Western attempts to instill “neoliberalism.” values in other societies of the world.
According to Putin, these alien values include “culture cancellation,” “dozens of gay parades,” and the right to express one’s gender identity.
On Thursday, Russia’s lower house unanimously adopted a law banning “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among Russian citizens and imposed heavy fines for publicly referring to the LGBTQ+ community. was imposed.
“The West has at least two,” Putin said. One is the West, which Russia is close to “traditional, mainly Christian values, freedom, patriotism and the richest culture.” “But there is another West, a West that is aggressive, international, neo-colonial, and acts as an instrument for the neo-liberal elite,” he continued. “And of course Russia will not exactly accept this Western directive.”
In a nearly three-hour speech and question-and-answer session, Putin made many outrageous allegations, including that the West had agitated for the war in Ukraine.
“Unlike the West, we don’t invade other people’s yards,” Putin said, arguing that Moscow would not interfere in the affairs of other countries.
Over the past 15 years, Russia has invaded two of its neighbors, Ukraine and Georgia, intervened militarily in Syria, and spent millions of dollars to gain political support in Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, and elsewhere. .
Putin has again denounced President Donald Trump’s ordered assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, whom the Pentagon has condemned for the attack on U.S. citizens. “They killed Soleimani on the territory of another state and said, ‘Yes, we killed him,'” Putin said. “What is it? What world do we live in?”
Russia has been accused of orchestrating attacks on several Kremlin critics abroad, from the assassination of a Chechen in Germany to the poisoning of a former intelligence officer and defector in London. Putin’s greatest critic, Alexei Navalny, is imprisoned in Russia after surviving a poison attack.
“Anything coming from Russia is always labeled a ‘Kremlin conspiracy’,” Putin said. “But look at yourself! [us.]”
In recent years, Putin’s government has become increasingly repressive, cracking down on opposition figures, journalists, activists and academics, calling hundreds of them “foreign agents.”
The panel’s moderator, political analyst Fyodor Lukyanov, pressed Putin on whether Russia was underestimating its enemy in Ukraine. Initially, the Kremlin expected to capture Kyiv soon.
“Society does not understand. What is the plan for this operation?” Lukyanov continued, citing growing dissatisfaction with Moscow’s military strategy and the conscription of more than 300,000 men but avoiding being sent into battle. He alluded to an unpopular mobilization movement that forced him to flee the country for his sake.
Putin dismissed the criticism. He said the balance on the battlefield would be even worse for Russia in the future given that Western powers supply Ukraine with weapons and “build fortified areas”.
Putin also reiterated Russia’s unsupported claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” containing radioactive material. Western leaders have dismissed this accusation as false and as a pretext that Russia could use such weapons to escalate war.
In his previous remarks, Putin has often said he was ready to use “every means available”, alluding to Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal, but on Thursday, Russia openly It never threatened to use it and claimed there was no need to do so in Ukraine.
Putin repeated false accusations of state-sponsored “Nazism” in Kyiv, claiming the United States could end the war. can be resolved quickly,” he said. “They just need to change their attitude and signal to Kyiv to work on peace talks.”
