President Putin.
The Russian President’s overture to Europe, and praise for India at the Valdai Club are overshadowed by his escalating war rhetoric. His remarks sought to throw a very different light on India’s “neutrality” in the Ukraine-Russia war
By: Editorial
Updated: October 31, 2022 3:53:22 am
Much of what Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Valdai Club, a much awaited annual feature at the Moscow think tank, was along predictable lines. He railed at the West of creating its own rules and trying to impose them on others. He lashed out at the American desire for a unipolar world, and said he was not for unipolarity or even a bipolar world, but a multipolar world in which all would be respected. He alleged that the West was “seeking some kind of nuclear incident” and trying to create a false flag incident with a “dirty bomb” to pin against Russia, and thus to escalate the war. But between the lines, there was also an intriguing outreach to Western Europe — particularly Germany, whose relations with Russia in the post Cold War phase were built on the belief that Moscow could never be isolated in any plan for peace and security in Europe. Putin’s appeal to Europe sought to differentiate between the “the genuine traditional West” as opposed to the American-led West in which “even allies are sanctioned” and they “lower their heads and agree to everything”. He asked Europe to “rediscover/restore its political and economic independence” as this was the only way to a multipolar world.
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