Page 45 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine December 2024

bne December 2024 Eastern Europe I 45
as “the event of the year in the realm of ideas and meaning,” casting him as “a major global leader” behind a “doctrine of a new world order.”
Highlights from the speech:
• Theme: Discussing “Lasting Peace” with a focus on common security and equal development opportunities for the 21st century.
• Historical Context: Putin reflected on major global revolutions and asserted that the world is in a new era of fundamental changes.
• New World Order: Observes the emergence of a new, unpredictable global structure as old systems fade, with rising regional powers and nations asserting independence.
• Global Challenges: Lists issues like technological change, economic crises, social division, and regional conflicts.
• Western Critique: Putin criticised Western liberalism as intolerant and self-righteous, claiming it under- mines democracy, promotes division, and hinders a multipolar world.
• Multipolar World: Advocates for
a world system with multiple power centres, urging mutual respect for cultures and the rejection of coercive practices.
• Russia’s Position: Asserts Russia does not view the West as an enemy but will defend its values and interests.
• Economic and Security Systems:
Calls for new economic frameworks and cooperative security systems across Eurasia, with emphasis on non-Western alliances like BRICS and regional partnerships.
• Equality and Justice: Highlights the need for equitable global develop- ment, criticising the economic and social divides between the “Global North” and “Global South.”
• Climate and Environment:
Discusses the importance of a collective approach to climate challenges and criticises the use of green policies as neo-colonial tools.
• Russia-China Partnership: Putin lauds Russia's strategic relationship with China as an example of mutual respect and beneficial cooperation.
• Opposition to Western Dominance:
Claims the US and allies are trying to impose a unipolar world order, which Russia and like-minded nations resist.
• BRICS and Economic Reform:
Emphasises BRICS’s role in creating alternatives to the US dollar- dominated financial system and advocates for the use of national currencies in trade.
has long advocated that international organisations like the UN are the appro- priate venue to resolve this differences through arbitration and consultations.
The Valdai speech is a continuation of this focus on a multipolar world, which Putin has largely been successful in achieving. While the purpose of the war in Ukraine was nominally to prevent Ukraine from ever joining Nato, the broader goal was to end the US dominance of geopolitics. The reaction by the Global South to the extreme sanctions imposed on Rus-
sia following the invasion of Ukraine has been flock to the new non-aligned organisations that have been established and developed by Russia, China and India in particular such as the BRICS+ and the expanded G20. While these are works in progress, they have expanded in size and importance in just the last two years.
“Putin depicted Russia as the linchpin of a "multipolar world," asserting that “Russia’s
existence” secures “diversity, variety, and complexity” on a global scale, which he argued are essential to “successful development”.”
Foreign Policy concept
The Valdai speech follows on from
a revision to Russia’s basic foreign policy concept, released in March 2023. That document represented a radical departure from the previous version, dropping the talk of “partnership” with the West and striking an entirely more aggressive tone.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has renamed its Department of Pan-Euro- pean Cooperation to: The Department of European Problems. MFA spokesperson Maria Zakharova: new name reflects “geopolitical realities.”
It also stressed Russia’s desire for an end to the so-called uni-polar world that is dominated by the US hegemony and shift to a multipolar world, where all countries have equal importance and their sovereign decisions are respected. In the case of conflict or disputes, Putin
New rules of the game
Prior to the war another key speech was delivered by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but certainly authored
by Putin – his “new rules of the game” speech delivered in February 2021 in the midst of a visit to Moscow by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Lavrov also warned the same month that Russia would break off diplomatic relations with the EU if his comments were ignored, and indeed did break off diplomatic relations with Nato later the same year.
In that speech, Lavrov lectured the West, saying Russia would no longer tolerate the West’s double take on Russia, doing business and buying raw materials on one hand and sanctioning Russia for its digressions with the other. This speech was the precursor to the war in Ukraine and a radical departure from the previ- ous “suck it up in silence” stance the Kremlin had taken previously. Many
www.bne.eu