Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player...

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin gave a lengthy speech on October 2 before the 22nd annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, often called “Russia’s Davos,” before answering questions for three hours. In this nearly four-hour long media appearance, the president communicated his views on a variety of subjects, ranging from to immigration to multipolarity, to Russian elites in various sectors of society for the coming year’s planning. 

The subject of the conference was polycentrism and multipolarity (two related concepts in international relations referring to the end of the unipolar moment). Putin expressed a belief that we already live in a multipolar era. “In fact, the multipolarity that has emerged is already shaping the framework, within which the governments act.”

“It’s a much more open, one might even say creative, space for foreign policy behavior.” Putin stated. “Practically nothing is predetermined, everything can go differently.”

Putin also opined that, unlike the geopolitical order between the Treaty of Westphalia and the dawn of the Cold War, the forces beyond those of the nation-state will play an increasing role in the multipolar world. “This [geopolitical] space is much more democratic,” Putin told the audience. “It opens up opportunities and pathways for a large number of political and economic players.” 

Per Putin, this growth in the number of influential forces in this multipolar world makes the local and the particular more important, rather than less so, unlike in the earlier era of globalization: “A greater role, than at any time, is played by the cultural-historical and civilizational specificities of different countries. It is necessary to look for points of contact and convergence of interests. Already, no one is prepared to play by the rules given by someone from somewhere far away.” 

The Russian president attributed the new rise of multipolarity to the desire of U.S. elites to use the unipolar moment to try to gain global hegemony. “Paradoxically, multipolarity came as a direct consequence of [the West’s] attempts to create and preserve global hegemony,” Putin observed. Accordingly, multipolarity is but “a response by the international system and history itself to the obsessive desire to align everyone into a single hierarchy, with Western countries at the top.”

According to Putin, these attempts at global hegemony by the collective West ultimately led to the alienation of the Western elites from their populations. Western overextension, Putin noticed, has increasingly “rais[ed] legitimate questions among citizens of countries that are trying to play this role of ‘grandees’: ‘Why do we need all this?’” Putin argued that this geopolitical overextension has led to the erosion of Western, and particularly American, uniqueness. Putin cited an anecdote of an American colleague who told him, “We gained the world, but lost America itself.” 

“Was it worth it? And did you gain anything at all?” Putin wondered aloud.

Putin estimates that growing dissatisfaction with the political class in the West highlights that most people do not think it was worth it. “In the societies of leading Western European countries, a clear rejection of the exorbitant ambitions of the political elites of these countries has matured and is growing,” Putin said. “Public opinion barometers show this everywhere.”

In response to this growing rejection of the hawkishness of Western elites by their populations, Putin commented that Western states are becoming increasingly authoritarian and unresponsive to the desires of their peoples. “The establishment does not want to cede power, resorts to outright deception of its own citizens, escalates the situation externally, resorts to any tricks within its own countries—increasingly on the edge, and even beyond the law,” Putin commented. 

He continued,

But endlessly turning democratic and electoral procedures into a farce and manipulating the will of the people won’t work…. In many countries this is happening; in some countries they are trying to ban their political opponents who are already gaining greater legitimacy and greater trust from voters…. We know this; we experienced it in the Soviet Union. Remember [Vladimir] Vysotsky's songs: “Even the military parade was cancelled! Soon they’ll ban all of everything….” But it doesn’t work; bans don’t work.

Putin cited last year’s American presidential election as an example of the futility of the attempts to ban and censor the opponents of Western liberal adventurism. He added that elections such as these were potentially “contagious,” leading to the weakening of the stranglehold held by elites in other Western democracies.

Putin also seemed fairly positive about the chances of detente with the United States and the future of American–Russian relations under the Trump administration, given the latter's concern for American national interests. “We see that the current administration of the U.S. is guided primarily by the interests of its own country—as it understands them,” Putin stated. “I believe this is a rational approach.” 

He continued,

But then, excuse me, Russia also reserves the right to be guided by our national interests, one of which, by the way, is the restoration of full-fledged relations with the United States. And no matter what the contradictions, if we treat each other with respect, then bargaining​—even the toughest, most persistent one​—will still have the goal of reaching a consensus, and this means that, in the end, mutually acceptable solutions are possible.

Putin also praised the bluntness of the current Trump administration. “The current White House administration states its interests and desires clearly,” Putin said. “It is always better to clearly understand what your interlocutor wants, what he is trying to achieve, than to try to guess the real meaning in a series of equivocations, ambiguous and vague hints.”

Putin also addressed immigration to Russia and his beliefs on the foundation of Russian identity in his address. Putin cited shared values (downstream of Eastern Christianity) as the foundation of Russian civilization, rather than ethnicity or race, and asserted that those sharing those values can become Russian:

In the personal identification documents of subjects of the Russian Empire, there was not a column [for] nationality—there was none. In the Soviet passport there was, but in the Russian one—there was not. But what was there? “Religious faith.” There was a common value, a religious value, association with Eastern Christian religion, with Orthodoxy… There were other values, but this was the defining one: which values do you share?

That’s why, even today, it doesn't matter to us whether a person is from the east, west, south, or north. If they share our values, they’re one of us.

Putin’s media appearance seemed to hint that the Russian president may intend to retire after the resolution to the Ukraine crisis and associated geopolitical challenges. When a questioner asked him if he ever feels in negotiations with the West like Emperor Alexander I at the Congress of Vienna, Putin replied, “No, I don’t feel [like that]. Alexander I was an emperor, and I am president, chosen by the people for a specific term—that’s a big difference.” This emphasis on the president’s term being for a set duration signals that Putin perhaps wishes for a younger successor to step into his shoes following the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine.