Speech by Vladimir Putin at Valdai. Main

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the anniversary, XX annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi. Its theme this year is “A Just Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for All.” According to the head of state, the club and the country now face the task of building a new world.

“We are faced with the task of essentially building a new world. At such defining stages, the role and responsibility of intellectuals like you, dear colleagues, is extremely great,” Putin said.

Over the years, the club has undergone colossal changes, the president continued. 20 years is a short period of time, but when it falls during the era of the breakdown of the entire world order, time, in his assessment, “seems to be compressed.” During this time, more events happened, he believes, than at other times happens in many decades. Changes, Putin is sure, have taken place qualitatively and require changes in the very principles of international relations.

At the beginning of the century, everyone thought, Putin noted, that the world community had learned the lessons of the destructive consequences of the ideological confrontation of the last century, but it turned out that this was not so. 20 years ago, at the first meeting of Valdai, Russia was entering a new stage of its development, having overcome the difficult period of recovery after the collapse of the USSR, and was ready with all its might to engage in the process of building a more just world order. But, according to him, such readiness for fruitful interaction was perceived by many as submission, agreement that peace would be built by those who “proclaimed themselves victors in the Cold War.”

The United States and its satellites set a course for hegemony from the very beginning, but Russia understood from the very beginning that such attempts were doomed to failure. “The world is too complex and diverse to be subordinated to one scheme, even if behind it lies the power, the enormous power of the West, accumulated over centuries of colonial policy,” the president believes.

The President noted that in the past he himself made proposals for Russia to join NATO, but the country was not needed there. “We thought that we were already our own, excuse me, as our people say, bourgeois. What else? <...> Apparently, the problem is geopolitical interests and an arrogant attitude towards others. That’s the problem, self-confidence,” Putin said.

According to the head of state, the “bloc approach” adopted by the West is a restriction of the right of other countries to their own development and the taking away of part of their sovereignty, for this they are trying to replace international law with the “world order.” At the same time, Western countries not only set arbitrary rules, but also teach how they should be followed. The boorish form in which this is done is a manifestation of colonial thinking, the president believes.