Putin at Valdai: 'The Russian Revolution of 1917...became to some extent milestones in the development of mankind'
S.P. Obukhov.
On November 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at a meeting of Valdai Club experts.The meeting was held in Sochi and experts from the BRICS countries dominated among the guests.
Oddly enough, this time the president refrained from rude anti-Soviet speech. He didn't remember either "Lenin Ukraine" or his other common passages about the "Lenin bomb to Russia", etc.
The President even publicly voiced an obvious thesis about the world-historical significance of the Great October: "The Russian Revolution of 1917, as in its time the Dutch, English, and the Great French Revolution, became to some extent milestones in the development of mankind, largely determined the course of history, the nature of politics, diplomacy, economy and social structure".
Moreover, he remembered the outstanding role of the USSR in the anti-imperialist struggle.
The President, in particular, recalled that the USSR helped states freed from colonial or neo-colonial dependence, be it Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East or Latin America. And separately, V.V. Putin reminded that it was the Soviet Union in the mid-80s of the last century that stood for the cessation of ideological confrontation, for overcoming the legacy of the Cold War, in fact, for the end of the Cold War itself and then for overcoming its legacy, those barriers that interfered with the unity of the world and its comprehensive development. But this, according to Putin, unjustifiably idealistic on the part of our leaders and our people, sometimes even a naive approach, led to opposite results. Namely, the other side of the ideological confrontation perceived the current historical events not as a chance to reorganize the world on new fair principles and principles, but as its triumph, victory, as the surrender of our country to the West, and therefore as an opportunity for the winner to establish his own complete domination
In general, the president's four-hour speech, where he mentioned Russia 26 times, the West 22 times, the United States 7 times, can be briefly reformulated as follows:
- We are in a period of radical changes: a new reconstruction is inevitable, and the West must recognize that it no longer has a monopoly;
- We really wanted to become a part of the Western world, but the West did not accept us;
- Now the existing contradictions should lead to the synthesis of a new matrix of the world order;
- The prototype of such a matrix is BRICS, as well as cooperation of regional organizations;
- Migration leads to new challenges, although partly inevitable and leads to xenophobia;
- Ukraine needs conditions for a long-term settlement. Russia is determined to create such conditions "so that Ukraine eventually becomes an independent, sovereign state", and not used in the interests of third countries
- Russia fights for its freedom and for the freedom of the majority of the world's peoples;
- The president again pedaled on "Russianness", even presented it on the example of the courageous behavior of the Belgorod voter as a role model, but traditionally leveled this support on the state-forming people by mentioning that "we have 190 ethnic groups";
- Putin said that he did not want Russia to return to the path "until 2022", which was a hidden intervention against it. Thus, he emphasized the break with three decades of the Gorbachev-Eltsin geopolitical project on "the entry of the oligarchic Dunka into Europe", i.e. the inclusion of Russia in third roles in the backyards of the Western global project, which implies only one thing - the dismemberment and overexploitation of historical Russia and the termination of the historical existence of the Russian people.
Obviously, unlike Vladimir Putin's past "Valdai" speeches, this Sochi speech did not concern domestic political problems at all and was addressed to the Western audience.
Systemic liberals even called Putin's new "Valdai" speech as "ather a non-trivial symbiosis of the Soviet newspaper Pravda" with articles on the fight against colonialism and the greatness of the Russian Empire". And the official for broadcasting abroad, the RT TV channel broadcasts the following conclusion: "according to the results of the plenary session of the annual meeting of the international discussion club "Valdai", it is possible to predict a decrease in the tension of the military and political situation".
Some softening of the president's rhetoric regarding his Ukrainian plans immediately led to the activation of the so-called "peace party" within the country. For example, the Special Representative of the President of Russia Boris Titov is already promoting the agreement to Ukraine's accession to NATO in exchange for easing sanctions. As the grandmother of the Russian pop Alla Borisovna Pugacheva once sang - "will it be, oh-y-yoy".
General conclusion: a new "Valdai" speech by V. Putin is another attempt to call on some of the Western "elites" to compromise and position Russia as a key link in the "multipolar world".