Highlights from Vladimir Putin’s speech in Valdai

Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the annual meeting of the 19th Valdai International Discussion Club. A few hours before the broadcast, the head of state’s press secretary said that the president’s speech would be “studied, read and reread”.

Highlights from Vladimir Putin’s speech:

• No one can dictate to Russia what kind of society and on what principles it will be built;

• In the modern world, it is unlikely to sit outside, the wind will sow the whirlwind;

• Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and Pushkin will live whatever they want. And in a few years no one will remember the names of those who banned them. History will put everything in its place and “cancel” not Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Tchaikovsky, but those who tried to “cancel” them;

• Americanophobia is a manifestation of racism as much as Anglophobia, Francophobia, Rusophobia;

• Russia has never considered itself an enemy of America;

• The vast majority of countries now demand democracy in international relations without accepting the orders of individual states;

• Genuine democracy in a multipolar world, above all, implies the possibility of any people choosing their own socio-political system;

• The West has the right to dozens of gender and gay marches, but it should not try to enforce them in other countries;

• We have the most unpredictable ten years ahead;

• There are at least two Wests: traditional Christian and now Islamic values. Somehow close to us. And the aggressive cosmopolitan neoliberal West;

• Russia has never been destroyed or “cleaned” from the geopolitical map;

• The new order in the world should be based on law and right, be free and fair;

• Events in the world continue to develop according to a negative scenario, turning into a systemic crisis in various fields;

• Russia does not challenge Western countries, it defends its right to exist;

• Russia tried to build relations with the West and NATO, its message was one – let’s live together;

• The Russian and Ukrainian peoples are united, this is a historical fact.