Putin outlines world order At the Valdai plenary

1990

Fyodor Lukyanov introduces the Valdai plenary and Vladimir Putin gives his complete prepared address. Putin argues that Western dominance is giving way to a multipolar world and urges respect for distinct national cultures, sovereignty and negotiated rules. He calls for fair UN reform with wider representation and changed priorities, while acknowledging the difficulty of consensus. He denies that Russia started the Ukraine war and advances a blame-centered account of Western policy and Ukrainian actions. He attributes the Soviet collapse primarily to accumulated internal failures, also criticizing Soviet leaders’ trust in Western partners, and quotes Egon Bahr’s 1990 warnings and proposed common European security council. Putin warns about AI control, digital conformity and autonomous military decisions, recalls Stanislav Petrov’s rejection of a false missile alert in 1983 and argues for human judgment and agreed safeguards. He calls for joint ethical responses to genetic intervention and efforts to influence personality and behavior. He also urges humanitarian limits on warfare while claiming Russian military personnel have never been the first to attack targets unrelated to enemy military infrastructure. He advocates a Greater Eurasian partnership and an indivisible-security charter, recalling its UN launch the previous week, and concludes with an appeal for cooperation. Historical interpretations, allegations and counterfactuals remain attributed to Putin; no reform, charter adoption or peace agreement is announced.

Putin quotes Egon Bahr’s 1990 contacts with Soviet leaders in Bonn and Moscow, recalling warnings that hostile European blocs could persist after German reunification and isolate the USSR. He describes Bahr’s proposal for a security council involving the US, USSR and Central and Eastern Europe, and later discusses why that common-security opportunity failed. The proposal and quotations are attributed to Putin’s retrospective account; the broadcast does not identify a single exact proposal date or prove its adoption.