What Vladimir Putin said about civilizations and PMCs

Over the past 19 years, the international environment has changed radically, said President Vladimir Putin, speaking in Sochi at a session of the Valdai Club. The theme of the anniversary – XX – session of the club was designated as “Fair multipolarity: how to ensure security and development for all”, the session was held in Sochi on October 2–5. Putin recalled that at the beginning of the century there was talk of rapprochement between Russia and the West. “After all, there was a moment when your humble servant simply suggested: maybe we should join NATO? But no, such a country is not needed in NATO. No, he said. – The question arises, what else? We thought that we were already our own, excuse me, as our people say, bourgeois. What else? There is no longer any ideological confrontation. What is the problem? Apparently, the problem is geopolitical interests and arrogant attitude towards others.”

For the further deterioration of relations with the West, up to confrontation over Ukraine, the president blamed the Western elites. Russia supported the residents of Donbass, while Kyiv “bombed, shot, and used tanks for nine years”: “War, a natural war against Donbass was unleashed. And no one counted the dead children in Donbass.” In the West, according to Putin, they did not cry for the dead. “We have to respond to the constantly growing military-political pressure. I have said more than once that we did not start the so-called war in Ukraine. On the contrary, we are trying to finish it. It was not we who staged a coup d’etat in Kyiv in 2014 – a coup d’etat, bloody, anti-constitutional,” Putin said.

The colonial policy of the West is unacceptable for Russia, and the Russian Federation defines itself, as stated in the new foreign policy concept, as a unique civilization. The United States and its satellites set a course for hegemony from the very beginning, but Russia understood that such attempts were doomed to failure, he told a Valdai participant. Putin explained that in his understanding, civilization is a “multifaceted phenomenon”: “It is, of course, interpreted differently. There was also an openly colonial interpretation: there is a certain “civilized world” that serves as a model for others, everyone must follow these standards, models, and those who do not agree will be driven into “civilization” with the baton of an “enlightened” master.”

But he is confident that times “have passed, and our understanding of civilization is completely different.” There are many civilizations and none of them is better or worse than the other, the president said: “They have equal rights as exponents of the aspirations of their cultures and traditions, their peoples. This is different for each of us. For me, for example, these are the aspirations of our people, my people, of which I was lucky enough to become a part.” No one has the right to rule the world for others, but at the same time in the West “they have forgotten about compromise and are ready to push through their interests at any cost,” Putin continued: “We’ll see what comes of this.”

“The Ukrainian crisis is not a territorial conflict, I want to emphasize this. Russia is the largest country in the world, with the largest territory,” Putin explained. – This is not a territorial conflict or even the establishment of a regional geopolitical balance. The question is much broader and more fundamental: we are talking about the principles on which the new world order will be based.” Lasting peace in the region, Putin said, will come after everyone “begins to feel safe, to understand <...> that there is a balance in the world when no one is able to force or force others to live and behave as the hegemon pleases.”

Answering a question from the moderator, editor of the magazine “Russia in Global Affairs” Fyodor Lukyanov about whether the conflict in Ukraine is a civilizational one, Putin said that Russia in this situation is protecting its people, but it is not clear what they are protecting on the other side of the front line. Putin agreed with the statement that civilization is not territories, but people. “Our actions in Donbass are primarily dictated by the protection of people. This is the meaning of our actions [на Украине]“, he emphasized. And Russia remains the largest country in the world, while the “Russian world” has a global character, Russian is one of the official languages ​​of the UN, and only 300,000 compatriots live in Latin America alone.

The civilizational approach is the most important element of the emerging ideology of Russia, says Andrei Maslov, director of the Center for African Studies at the Higher School of Economics. According to the expert, understanding and accepting the diversity of civilizational codes is an alternative to accepting the unipolar system of values ​​and goals promoted by the United States and its allies: “What is good for some is not necessarily good for others.” Maslov explained that the emergence of new centers of power is a natural process, the development of which includes awareness of both one’s heritage and one’s own development trajectory, therefore the civilizational approach is gaining weight in the modern world, it affirms the value equality of civilizations, the value of their diversity and the need for respectful dialogue between them without imposing your values ​​and your view of the world on others,” says the expert.

Putin also said that the United States is unlikely to have problems financing military assistance to Ukraine, but for Europe this could become a problem due to economic difficulties and a decline in GDP. At the same time, Putin assessed the state of the Russian economy as stable, and the financial situation, according to him, allows not only to increase spending on defense and security, but also to maintain social spending, so there is no talk of giving up “butter for the sake of guns.” Despite the doubling of defense spending, the budget surplus in the third quarter of 2022 amounted to more than 660 billion rubles. Comparing with Europe, Putin noted the growth in income of the population of the Russian Federation. “In Europe they fell, but here they grew by more than 12%,” he said.

Commenting on the statement of the Chairman of the European Council Charles Michel about the “betrayal” of the Armenian people by Russia in connection with the transfer of unrecognized Karabakh to Azerbaijan and the actual liquidation of the unrecognized republic from January 1, 2024, Putin said: “Whose mare would moo, and yours would be silent.” Yerevan has repeatedly refused the compromise proposed by Russia – the return of five of the seven regions of Azerbaijan itself in exchange for a special status for the region and the preservation of two regions for communication with Armenia. The Armenian leadership also refused the truce agreed with Baku at the height of the war in 2020 before Azerbaijani troops took Shusha. This year’s recognition by Armenia that Karabakh belonged to Azerbaijan resolved the main issue and made the recent military operation of the Azerbaijani army inevitable, while the Russian peacekeeping contingent had the right only to monitor the preservation of the terms of the truce.

Sergei Karaganov, scientific director of the HSE Faculty of World Politics, asked the president whether the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons should be lowered and the nuclear doctrine changed for this purpose. Karaganov published his article with such proposals in the summer, and it caused a great resonance. Putin said that he was aware of Karaganov’s proposals, but the existing two provisions of the Russian nuclear doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons are quite sufficient. We are talking about a retaliatory strike in response to a nuclear attack on Russia and a situation where a war with conventional weapons poses a threat to the very existence of the state. Security in this matter is ensured and no one in their right mind will attack Russia, the president expressed confidence; in addition, tests of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile have recently been successfully completed and work on the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile is nearing completion.

At the same time, Putin recalled that proposals had been made in Russia to conduct nuclear tests – this was recently stated by the head of the RT television channel Margarita Simonyan. According to the president, the United States has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), while Russia has both signed and ratified it. But, according to Putin, State Duma deputies can revoke ratification. According to IMEMO RAS expert Alexander Ermakov, Vladimir Putin once again recalled that the United States calls on everyone to ratify the CTBT, but does not intend to do so itself.

Answering a question about sabotage against Nord Streams, Putin said that “there are no results of the investigation and, apparently, there will be no results”; “American suppliers of energy resources to the European market” were interested in this sabotage, and by whose hands they did it – doesn’t matter. At the same time, he recalled that one branch of Nord Stream with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters. m is not damaged, but the German government cannot allow its use, since it has not received permission from the “Washington Regional Committee”. Therefore, supplies continue through the Turkish Stream, which is guarded by the Russian Navy. Russia sees attempts to attack this gas pipeline and English-speaking specialists are involved in preparing attacks using semi-submerged boats on Russian ships, Putin said.

When Lukyanov asked why Moscow continues to supply gas through Ukraine and pay it, which could strengthen its defense capability and raises questions among part of the Russian public, he replied that Russia is fulfilling its obligations to its partners in Europe and strengthening its financial position.

But, perhaps, one of the resonant (albeit not the main) statements was made at the end of the Valdai Club meeting. Answering Lukyanov’s question whether the country’s leadership now understands how to deal with private military companies, Putin replied that the experience was “so clumsy because it was not based on the law”: “It was a journalistic name – a private military company. There are no private military companies in Russia, because there is no law on private military companies. In our country they do not exist and never existed.”

There is no consensus on whether PMCs are needed, Putin noted. And then he stated that during the investigation of the plane crash in which Wagner employees died, fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of the victims. “The head of the Investigative Committee reported to me just the other day that fragments of a hand grenade were found in the bodies of those killed in the plane crash; there was no external influence on the plane,” the head of state said.

Putin also told the Valdai Club participants that during a search of the PMC office in St. Petersburg, the FSB found not only 10 billion rubles. cash, but also 5 kg of cocaine. “Unfortunately, no examination was carried out for the presence of alcohol and drugs in the blood of the victims. <...> In my opinion, it would be necessary to conduct such an examination,” the president noted.