Highlights from Putin’s speech at the plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club

Here is a set of highlights but we need to post up the transcript as soon as it is available. The most interesting part is the answers that Putin is still busy giving to the Valdai audience.

Putin names six key principles for the world’s sustainable development

Addressing the Valdai Forum on November 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated six principles of international relations which he first articulated in October 2023.

▪️Openness to interaction is the most important value for the overwhelming majority of countries and peoples. Attempts to erect artificial barriers slow down normal and mutually beneficial economic development. The disruption of ties is especially dangerous in times of natural disasters and social upheavals.

▪️The diversity of the world is a prerequisite for its sustainable development. A model of one country or a relatively small part of humanity should not be imposed as something universal on the rest of the world.

▪️The world can successfully develop only under conditions of maximum representativeness. No one has the right to govern the world on behalf of others.

▪️Security for all without exception is a key principle. The security of some cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of others. The bloc approach, the legacy of the colonial era and the Cold War contradicts the nature of the new international system.

▪️Justice for all. The gap between the ‘golden billion’ and the rest of humanity is fraught with the growth of political contradictions and the deepening of migration problems.

▪️Equality. No one is going to submit and make their interests dependent on stronger states.

✅Putin proclaimed that a new era of radical, revolutionary change is underway

✅He predicted the next 20 years will be more difficult and turbulent

✅The world is witnessing not only a power struggle but a deep clash over the fundamental principles guiding international relations

✅Putin warned of the threat of humanity descending into aggressive anarchy and abandoning traditional values

✅Western calls for a strategic defeat of Russia, a nuclear power, are reckless and dangerous adventurism, he said

✅ “The Western elites” blind belief in their impunity and exceptionalism could provoke a global disaster

✅Putin stated that “Western liberalism,” has devolved into a form of intolerance toward any independent or sovereign thought

✅ Chaos and systemic crises are intensifying in Western countries.

✅ In “the new world order,” the idea of global hegemony is no longer feasible

✅ Russia doesn’t see Western civilization as an enemy and rejects the “us versus them” mentality

✅ US & allies approach of “if I can’t have it, no one can” is a dangerous mindset.

✅ Putin stressed that, regardless of decisions made in Washington or Brussels, the world still needs Russia 🇷🇺

✅ Western geopolitical greed is the true source of recent conflicts, from Yugoslavia to Ukraine

✅The BRICS model represents a new, independent, and non-aligned approach to international relations

✅In the emerging world order, no country should feel marginalized, and no nation should be deemed a loser

✅No country should impose its values or systems on others

✅The crisis in international law reflects a broader shift—a rise of nations and cultures asserting their independence

✅The world is evolving toward a “polyphonic” order where all voices must be heard and respected

✅NATO is the last remaining bloc in the world, and it has become an “anachronism”

✅Some NATO member states have expressed interest in joining BRICS, and this number could increase

✅European leaders have long criticized the U.S. for using Russia as a scare tactic even before the current conflicts erupted

✅The West escalated tensions to provoke a coup in Ukraine, forcing Russia into military action and achieving its strategic goals in the process

✅The growing divide between the “golden billion” and the rest of the world is worsening migration crises

✅Russia never seeks conflict but is always prepared to take all necessary measures to defend itself

✅Russia has consistently thwarted those seeking global domination and will continue to do so

✅Ukrainians have been cynically used as pawns, trained and sent to fight against Russia

✅The stereotype of the “civilized West” versus the “barbarism” of other nations is a racist ideology

✅Russia’s survival is essential for the world’s future progress and development

✅It is futile to try and pressure Russia; the West must learn to accept and engage with it

✅ The West is pursuing a strategy of incremental intervention designed to humiliate and dismantle Russia

✅Russia fights not only for its own sovereignty but also defends universal rights and freedoms, viewing this as its global mission

✅ Internet usage should be based on sovereign algorithms, and this goal should be actively pursued

✅The internet must align with the national laws of the country in which it operates.

✅ The state imposing sweeping bans in this domain is ineffective

✅ Yes global information exchange via the internet should be free, but society must safeguard itself against harmful content

Right now, the most important problem on our Eurasian continent, the main problem between Russia and European countries, is the trust deficit. You can berate Russia all you want, and we probably make a lot of mistakes too, but when they tell us that “we signed the Minsk agreements on Ukraine only to give Ukraine an opportunity to rearm, and we had no intention of resolving this conflict peacefully,” what kind of trust can we talk about?
What are you guys? What trust? You have directly publicly stated that you have cheated us! Lied to us and deceived us! What kind of trust is that? But we need to get back to that system of mutual trust.

In the world today, there is only one bloc left, a bloc held together by so-called compulsion, rigid ideological dogmas and clichés. This is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. You know, even before all the acute conflicts of today, many European leaders said to me: “Why are they scaring us with you? We are not afraid, we don’t see any threats”. This is a direct speech, you know. I think that the United States understands this very well. They felt it!

They themselves have already treated NATO as a secondary organization. Believe me, I know what I’m saying. But still, the experts there understood that NATO is necessary. And how to preserve its value, its attractiveness? You have to scare. We need to tear Russia and Europe apart, especially Russia and Germany, France. Conflict. So they brought us to the coup d’état in Ukraine and to the fighting in the southeast in Donbass. Just forced us to retaliate.

Putin on the historical moment:

A completely new world order is taking shape before our eyes, unlike anything we know from the past. For example, the Westphalia or Yalta systems. New powers are rising, peoples are becoming more and more aware of their interests, their self-value, their identity and identity, and they are more and more firmly insisting on achieving the goals of development and justice. At the same time, societies are facing more challenges.

The moment of truth is coming. The old world order is irrevocably gone, one could say, already gone, and a serious, irreconcilable struggle is unfolding over the formation of a new one. Irreconcilable, first of all, because it is not even a fight for power or geopolitical influence, it is a clash of the very principles on which the relations of countries and peoples will be built at the next historical stage. Its outcome will determine whether we can all work together to build a universe that will allow the development of all, solve emerging contradictions on the basis of mutual respect for cultures and civilizations without coercion and the use of force. Finally, will human society be able to remain a society with its ethical, humanistic beginnings, and will man be able to remain a man?