Text of Putin's speech and comments from Valdai conference

[newthinking]

"Good Read" in terms of the information it contains. Putin basically is laying out where he thinks the conflict is going, why he thinks it is going there, what he proposes to deal with it.

The speech is first, then question and answer.

The full text is on Counterpunch (you have to page down)

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/27/new-rules-or-a-game-without-rules/

October 27, 2014
The World Order
New Rules or a Game Without Rules?
by VLADIMIR PUTIN

This is the text of Vladimir Putin’s speech and a question and answer session at the final plenary meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club’s XI session in Sochi on 24 October 2014.

It was mentioned already that the club has new co-organisers this year. They include Russian non-governmental organisations, expert groups and leading universities. The idea was also raised of broadening the discussions to include not just issues related to Russia itself but also global politics and the economy.

An organisation and content will bolster the club’s influence as a leading discussion and expert forum. At the same time, I hope the ‘Valdai spirit’ will remain – this free and open atmosphere and chance to express all manner of very different and frank opinions.

Let me say in this respect that I will also not let you down and will speak directly and frankly. Some of what I say might seem a bit too harsh, but if we do not speak directly and honestly about what we really think, then there is little point in even meeting in this way. It would be better in that case just to keep to diplomatic get-togethers, where no one says anything of real sense and, recalling the words of one famous diplomat, you realise that diplomats have tongues so as not to speak the truth.
 
We get together for other reasons. We get together so as to talk frankly with each other. We need to be direct and blunt today not so as to trade barbs, but so as to attempt to get to the bottom of what is actually happening in the world, try to understand why the world is becoming less safe and more unpredictable, and why the risks are increasing everywhere around us.
Today’s discussion took place under the theme: New Rules or a Game without Rules. I think that this formula accurately describes the historic turning point we have reached today and the choice we all face. There is nothing new of course in the idea that the world is changing very fast. I know this is something you have spoken about at the discussions today. It is certainly hard not to notice the dramatic transformations in global politics and the economy, public life, and in industry, information and social technologies.

Let me ask you right now to forgive me if I end up repeating what some of the discussion’s participants have already said. It’s practically impossible to avoid. You have already held detailed discussions, but I will set out my point of view. It will coincide with other participants’ views on some points and differ on others.

As we analyse today’s situation, let us not forget history’s lessons. First of all, changes in the world order – and what we are seeing today are events on this scale – have usually been accompanied by if not global war and conflict, then by chains of intensive local-level conflicts. Second, global politics is above all about economic leadership, issues of war and peace, and the humanitarian dimension, including human rights.

The world is full of contradictions today. We need to be frank in asking each other if we have a reliable safety net in place. Sadly, there is no guarantee and no certainty that the current system of global and regional security is able to protect us from upheavals. This system has become seriously weakened, fragmented and deformed. The international and regional political, economic, and cultural cooperation organisations are also going through difficult times.

Yes, many of the mechanisms we have for ensuring the world order were created quite a long time ago now, including and above all in the period immediately following World War II. Let me stress that the solidity of the system created back then rested not only on the balance of power and the rights of the victor countries, but on the fact that this system’s ‘founding fathers’ had respect for each other, did not try to put the squeeze on others, but attempted to reach agreements.

The main thing is that this system needs to develop, and despite its various shortcomings, needs to at least be capable of keeping the world’s current problems within certain limits and regulating the intensity of the natural competition between countries.

It is my conviction that we could not take this mechanism of checks and balances that we built over the last decades, sometimes with such effort and difficulty, and simply tear it apart without building anything in its place. Otherwise we would be left with no instruments other than brute force.

What we needed to do was to carry out a rational reconstruction and adapt it the new realities in the system of international relations.

Full text and question and answer:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/27/new-rules-or-a-game-without-rules/

[newthinking]

1. Before someone posts it: It is not "Propaganda" to analyse speeches and important current events

(Can't believe that in this day and age I feel the need to say this)

[RobertEarl]

2. Putin is sensing and telling about real global danger

There are some who thrive on it, and will hide their desire to create and cause FUBAR. Seems Putin isn't that way. He is trying to avoid it. But he is being pushed by the US and its empire building.

[Nitram]

3. Sounds to me like Putin is warning the world that it is time for a change.

And that we better get out of the way if we don't want to get hurt. Putin's talk of "reaching agreement" basically means "everyone else agreeing with me."

[RobertEarl]

4. Russia has never been more in the money

Their oil sales have been a boon to the Russian economy.

Putin wants to see that continue. War will stop the flow of oil sales, so don't think Putin is in for war. The US on the other hand is in several overseas conflicts that could escalate at any time. We thrive on war.

[Nitram]

6. No, the price of oil is way down and the Russian economy ios feeeling the pinch.

If a war drives up the price of oil, it will benefit Putin.

[truth2power]

5. Great minds think alike, I suppose. I just logged on with the intention

of starting a thread to ask if anyone had read Putin's speech.

I knew I would have some down-time today, so I printed the speech this morning, hoping to have time to read it. I got it off Saker's blog, so I didn't have the Q&A, but I watched that yesterday on YouTube. I thought Peter LaVelle's comment and question was especially pertinent in that segment.

Having read it, I think it was a remarkable speech. No cant. Just reasoned discourse about the plight of humankind in the world today. He questioned the support, in some quarters, for neo-fascists, no doubt referring to some individuals in the Kiev coup government.

Some remarks that I thought worthy:

We have entered a period of differing interpretations and deliberate silences in world politics. International law has been forced to retreat over and over by the onslaught of legal nihilism. Objectivity and justice have been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Arbitrary interpretations and biased assessments have replaced legal norms. At the same time, total control of the global mass media has made it possible when desired to portray white as black and black as white.

snip>

Today, we are seeing new efforts to fragment the world, draw new dividing lines, put together coalitions not built for something but directed against someone, anyone, create the image of an enemy as was the case during the Cold War years, and obtain the right to this leadership, or diktat if you wish. The situation was presented this way during the Cold War. We all understand this and know this. The United States always told its allies: “We have a common enemy, a terrible foe, the centre of evil, and we are defending you, our allies, from this foe, and so we have the right to order you around, force you to sacrifice your political and economic interests and pay your share of the costs for this collective defence, but we will be the ones in charge of it all of course.” In short, we see today attempts in a new and changing world to reproduce the familiar models of global management, and all this so as to guarantee their [the US’] exceptional position and reap political and economic dividends.

For my part, the propagandists in the US govt. and the western media who are demonizing Vladimir Putin should just STFU.

[Nitram]

7. We are telling the truth about Putin and will not STFU.

Putin presents a grave danger to Europe as he annexes other country's territory (Georgia and Ukraine) and threatens to expand further into the countries that surround Russia. The Crimean Tatars are living in daily fear, and Ukraine is trying to deal with weapons, money and combatants that Putin has provided to rebels who shot down a commercial air liner. It is hard to demonize someone as demonic as Putin.

[truth2power]

9. You are correct. I spoke too harshly in saying

that everyone should just STFU. Sometimes I let my frustration with the state of things get the better of me. My apologies. I don't believe in censorship and I think everyone should have the right to speak their mind.

That said, I continue to maintain my position that you are grossly inaccurate in your assessment of Mr. Putin. There are numerous commentators, academics, and Russia scholars who agree that the true narrative re: Ukraine, is totally antithetical to that which is being promoted by the Western media.

There is an interesting article in the September/October 2014 issue of Foreign Affairs (certainly not a leftist publication) that provides an overview of the events that unfolded in Ukraine. Here's a link, and a couple of brief excerpts:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141769/john-j-mearsheimer/why-the-ukraine-crisis-is-the-wests-fault

Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault: The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin

By John J. Mearsheimer

…the United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West.

Snip>

The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West.
Snip >
For Putin, the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected and pro-Russian president -- which he rightly labeled a “coup” -- was the final straw.


The new government in Kiev was pro-Western and anti-Russian to the core, and it contained four high-ranking members who could legitimately be labeled neofascists.

Snip>

Washington may not like Moscow’s position, but it should understand the logic behind it. This is Geopolitics 101: great powers are always sensitive to potential threats near their home territory. After all, the United States does not tolerate distant great powers deploying military forces anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, much less on its borders. Imagine the outrage in Washington if China built an impressive military alliance and tried to include Canada and Mexico in it. Logic aside, Russian leaders have told their Western counterparts on many occasions that they consider NATO expansion into Georgia and Ukraine unacceptable, along with any effort to turn those countries against Russia -- a message that the 2008 Russian-Georgian war also made crystal clear.

Also, here's a 25 minute segment of Crosstalk with Peter Lavelle, on RT. (Yes, I know..We're not supposed to watch RT unless we ask permission, or something like that). However, the 3 guests possess some credibility, IMO: Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst, Gilbert Doctorow, Political Analyst of International Affairs with a concentration on Russia; and Nicolai Petro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.

Crosstalk: West vs Russia

[truth2power]

10. Myapologies. Please see my post, above. n/t

[GGJohn]

11. No problem, I'll delete my post.