oct 22, 2021 - Defense.info: Putin's Oct 2021 Valdai speech

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At these meetings, Putin provides his view of the world and of current events.

The narrative he has crafted and delivered during these events has been quite clear.

The message: The collapse of the Soviet Union was a global catastrophe and setback. The Americans took advantage of this collapse to try and become a hegemonic power. But their efforts have failed and the world is in the process of transition to a new balance of power, one in which Russia has its rightful pace.

As Putin commented about these developments:

A search for a new balance, sustainable relations in the social, political, economic, cultural and military areas and support for the world system was launched at that time. We were looking for this support but must say that we did not find it, at least so far. Meanwhile, those who felt like the winners after the end of the Cold War (we have also spoken about this many times) and thought they climbed Mount Olympus soon discovered that the ground was falling away underneath even there, and this time it was their turn, and nobody could “stop this fleeting moment” no matter how fair it seemed.

In general, it must have seemed that we adjusted to this continuous inconstancy, unpredictability and permanent state of transition, but this did not happen either.

I would like to add that the transformation that we are seeing and are part of is of a different calibre than the changes that repeatedly occurred in human history, at least those we know about. This is not simply a shift in the balance of forces or scientific and technological breakthroughs, though both are also taking place. Today, we are facing systemic changes in all directions – from the increasingly complicated geophysical condition of our planet to a more paradoxical interpretation of what a human is and what the reasons for his existence are.

At this session, he underscored the continuing conflict within the United States over basic values, up to an including the various conflicts involving sexuality, social justice and national legacies.

These crises were leading to internal contradictions in Western societies and, although he did not put it this way, there is little question that his judgement was the United States was being weakened by deep moral divisions and social conflict. The “progressives” in the United States were likened in their destructive behavior to that of the impact of the Bolsheviks on Russian culture.

The title of the session was the “global shake-up in the 21st century” but the subtitle to this was to be written not in 2021 but in 2022 by Putin.

Putin underscore his perspective as follows:

“We look in amazement at the processes underway in the countries which have been traditionally looked at as the standard-bearers of progress. Of course, the social and cultural shocks that are taking place in the United States and Western Europe are none of our business; we are keeping out of this.

“Some people in the West believe that an aggressive elimination of entire pages from their own history, “reverse discrimination” against the majority in the interests of a minority, and the demand to give up the traditional notions of mother, father, family and even gender, they believe that all of these are the mileposts on the path towards social renewal.

“Listen, I would like to point out once again that they have a right to do this, we are keeping out of this.

“But we would like to ask them to keep out of our business as well. We have a different viewpoint, at least the overwhelming majority of Russian society – it would be more correct to put it this way – has a different opinion on this matter. We believe that we must rely on our own spiritual values, our historical tradition and the culture of our multiethnic nation…..

“The advocates of so-called ‘social progress’ believe they are introducing humanity to some kind of a new and better consciousness. Godspeed, hoist the flags as we say, go right ahead. The only thing that I want to say now is that their prescriptions are not new at all. It may come as a surprise to some people, but Russia has been there already.

“After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks, relying on the dogmas of Marx and Engels, also said that they would change existing ways and customs and not just political and economic ones, but the very notion of human morality and the foundations of a healthy society.

“The destruction of age-old values, religion and relations between people, up to and including the total rejection of family (we had that, too), encouragement to inform on loved ones – all this was proclaimed progress and, by the way, was widely supported around the world back then and was quite fashionable, same as today. By the way, the Bolsheviks were absolutely intolerant of opinions other than theirs.

The Afghan war and its outcome further weakened the United States.

This is how Putin put it: “To put it bluntly, the Western domination of international affairs, which began several centuries ago and, for a short period, was almost absolute in the late 20th century, is giving way to a much more diverse system.

“The attempt after the end of the Cold War to create a global order on the basis of Western domination failed, as we see. The current state of international affairs is a product of that very failure, and we must learn from this.

“Some may wonder, what have we arrived at?

“We have arrived somewhere paradoxical. Just an example: for two decades, the most powerful nation in the world has been conducting military campaigns in two countries that it cannot be compared to by any standard.

“But in the end, it had to wind down operations without achieving a single goal that it had set for itself going in 20 years ago, and to withdraw from these countries causing considerable damage to others and itself. In fact, the situation has worsened dramatically.”

For Putin, Russian values are crucial to protect and enhance in the evolving global situation, one which is shaped by nation states.

And protecting Russian values and protecting the Russian nation state also requires vigilance, such as in the case of the threats posed from Ukraine by the government in Ukraine....

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