“The European Union has completely lost its political sovereignty, and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else’s tune,” with comments like these, Putin was certain to grab the attention of the world. Here’s what the Ukraine war will achieve, according to Vladimir Putin.
In what the Kremlin referred to as an “extremely important” address, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that new centers of power have developed, the unipolar world order is not returning, and the “colonial” mode of thinking has collapsed.
1. The old order has vanished with the wind
Putin told the crowd at SPIEF that when the US declared the end of the Cold War, Americans referred to themselves as “messengers of God on earth,” with no commitments and interests that should be treated as sacred. Since then, other centers of power have formed, and they are entitled to defend their own institutions, economies, and sovereignties.
These “truly revolutionary, tectonic changes in geopolitics, the global economy, in the technological sphere, in the entire system of international relations,” are “fundamental, pivotal and inexorable,” Putin said. “And It is a mistake to suggest that one can wait out the times of turbulent change and that things will return to normal; that everything will be as it was. It will not.”
2. Western sanctions against Russia backfired
With the effort to “cancel” Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine, the US and its allies hoped to wreck and destabilize the Russian economy and society. Instead, the sanctions have backfired on their makers, rendering social and economic issues worse, increasing the price of food, electricity, and fuel, and degrading standard of living throughout the West, but particularly in Europe.
“The European Union has completely lost its political sovereignty, and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else’s tune, accepting whatever they are told from above, causing harm to their own population and their own economy,” Putin said.
The consequences of “decisions divorced from reality and taken contrary to common sense,” he continued, will descend on Eu residents, who might suffer direct losses from the sanctions alone totaling more than $400 billion annually.
3. Energy prices and inflation are self-inflicted
The Russian president stated that condemning Russia for high energy costs and inflation in the West – “Putin’s price hike,” as the White House phrased it – is “stupidity” and “designed for people who can’t read or write.”
“Don’t blame us, blame yourselves,” Putin said.
The EU’s abandonment of long-term natural gas contracts with Russia and it “blindly believing in renewable sources” are credited with the jump in energy costs that occurred last year, according to the Russian president. The US and the EU printed trillions of dollars and euros to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the meantime.
4. ‘Elite change’ awaits the West
According to Putin, the policies of the EU and the US are causing more inequality and split in their society, not just in terms of welfare but also in regards of the beliefs and orientations of distinct groups.
“Such a detachment from reality, from the demands of society, will inevitably lead to a surge of populism and the growth of radical movements, to serious social and economic changes, to degradation and, in the near future, to a change of elites,” the Russian leader said.
5. If there’s a famine, it won’t be Russia’s fault
One of the factors contributing to the rise in world food insecurity, according to Putin, is the US and EU sanctions against Russia, particularly those related to grain and fertilizer exports. If there is famine in the world’s poorest nations, “this will be entirely on the conscience of the US administration and the European bureaucracy.”
Because of the “short-sighted actions of those who are accustomed to solving their problems at someone else’s expense,” who are trying to disrupt trade flows by printing money in a sort of “predatory colonial policy,” problems with the food supply have developed over the past several years, not months, according to Putin.
Russia is prepared to provide food to the Middle East and Africa, where there is the greatest chance of famine, but there are “logistical, financial, and transport” barriers put in place by the West, he said.
6. Reasons for the Ukraine conflict
Because the West refused to uphold its commitments, and because it was “simply impossible to reach any new agreements with them,” according to Putin, Russia moved soldiers into Ukraine in February. The choice was “forced, but necessary,” according to Russia, which had every right to protect its citizens and residents of Donbass from “genocide by the Kiev regime and neo-Nazis who received the full protection of the West” and to safeguard its security.
According to Putin, the West spent years arming and training Ukraine to be an “anti-Russia” state and “did not give a damn” about the country’s economy or people, but “spared no expense to create a NATO foothold in the east, directed against Russia, to cultivate aggression, hatred and Russophobia.”
“All the objectives of the special military operation will be unconditionally achieved,” Putin said.
7. Economic development is an expression of sovereignty
Putin claimed that sovereignty cannot be partial in the twenty-first century. The economics is one of those factors that are equally vital and complement one another. Russia’s economic development will be guided by five guiding principles: openness, freedom, social justice, infrastructure, and technological sovereignty.
Putin stated that Russia will “never follow the path of self-isolation and autarky,” but will deepen contacts with anybody who aspires to trade, adding that “many such countries” exist. Moscow will also encourage private enterprise, create and repair transportation infrastructure, work to eliminate social inequalities, and ensure that its critical technologies are not reliant on foreign imports.
“Truly sovereign states are always committed to equal partnerships,” while “those who are weak and dependent, as a rule, are busy looking for enemies, planting xenophobia, or finally losing their originality, independence, blindly following the overlord,” he said.
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