Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has denounced the West, accusing it of nuclear blackmail and declaring that its hegemony is about to end.
Announcing he had no regrets about what he calls “a special operation,” Putin made one of his longest public speeches since sending troops into Ukraine on February 24. He also accused the West of fomenting the conflict and of engaging in a “dangerous, bloody, and dirty” game that was causing chaos around the globe.
He added that this century will be the most deadly since World War 2.
“The historical period of the West’s undivided dominance over world affairs is coming to an end,” Putin, Russia’s paramount leader, told the Valdai Discussion Club during a session entitled “A Post-Hegemonic World: Justice and Security for Everyone” on Thursday, October 27.
“We are standing at a historical frontier: Ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important decade since the end of World War Two.”
The West, according to 70-year-old Putin, is a rotting and waning force in the face of emerging Asian superpowers like China.
Over the course of more than three and a half hours, he appeared at ease as he was questioned about nuclear war fears, his friendship with President Xi Jinping, and how he felt about the deaths of Russian soldiers in the Ukraine war, which he “partially” described as a civil war, a claim Kiev rejects.
The largest conflict between Russia and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the Soviet Union and the United States were on the verge of nuclear war, has been brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Putin cited comments made by former British Prime Minister Liz Truss about her willingness to activate London’s nuclear deterrent if the situation called for it in order to accuse the West of escalating recent nuclear tensions.
He repeated a claim that Ukraine could launch a “dirty bomb” packed with radioactive material to accuse Moscow, a claim that Kyiv and the West have dismissed as untrue and devoid of supporting documentation.
He disputed Kyiv’s assertion that the Russian charge would indicate that Moscow had plans to explode such a device on its own.
“We don’t need to do that. There would be no sense whatsoever in doing that,” Putin said, adding that the Kremlin had responded to what it felt was nuclear blackmail by the West.
When questioned about a potential nuclear escalation near Ukraine, Putin responded that there would always be a risk of using nuclear weapons.
When questioned about the Cuban Missile Crisis, he claimed that Russia’s military strategy was defensive and made the joke that he didn’t want to take the place of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader who, along with John F. Kennedy, brought the world dangerously close to nuclear war before averting it.
“No way. No, I can’t imagine myself in the role of Khrushchev,” Putin said.
Putin cited Russian novelist and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard talk, in which he launched a direct attack on Western civilization, denouncing its empty materialism and “the blindness of superiority.”
“Power over the world is what the so-called West has put on the line in its game – but the game is dangerous, bloody and I would say dirty,” said Putin. “The sower of the wind, as they say, will reap the storm.”
“I have always believed and believe in common sense so I am convinced that sooner or later the new centers of the multipolar world order and the West will have to start an equal conversation about the future we share – and the earlier the better,” Putin said.
He portrayed the Ukrainian conflict as a struggle between the West and Russia over control of the second-largest Eastern Slavic nation, which he claimed resulted in catastrophe for Kyiv.
Putin claimed that he continually considered the Russians who had died in Ukraine and claimed that only Russia could ensure the country’s territorial integrity.
