Putin wants the whole world to forget about Ukraine

Mohtasim Fuad Mahi

Nov 8, 2022

Vladimir Putin । File Image

When Vladimir Putin finished his first term in 2004, he repeatedly spoke of creating new ways of communicating with the world, especially the West. Valdai Club was established with that objective in mind. Its annual conference was attended by President Putin. The Valdai Club became a major forum for Russian leaders to communicate to the rest of the world.

From the mid-2000s to the first part of the second decade, Russia's top leadership spent hours answering a variety of questions at conferences organized by the Valdai Club. In those answers, they would describe Russia's unique progress in the field of democracy and how open Russia is to the rest of the world.

The speech we heard at the conference of the Valdai Club on October 27 this year is completely different from the speech of a century ago. Ahead of the conference, the press secretary of the Russian presidential office, Dmitry Peskov, promised that the people of Russia will "read and repeat" Putin's Valdai speech. President Vladimir Putin now thinks of himself as a maker of history, unwilling to see himself defeated. That's why such expectation from the people is not unusual.

Much of Putin's speech was filled with accusations against the West. Many Russian analysts dismissed Putin's statement. Because his statement is not consistent with reality. But these frank and profanity-laced statements provide a clear picture of Putin's current global strategy. Putin delivered different messages to different audiences in his speeches. The main point of his speech is that the crisis is not only about Ukraine, but something much bigger than that.

Putin's direct message to the world community is that now is the moment of 'the end of the monolithic world' and the 'birth of a polycentric world'. This is what Putin has preached like a preacher for most of his time as president. Putin took the issue from the writings of former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov.

Unsurprisingly, this topic dominated Putin's speech at the Valdai conference. He blamed the West and the United States for creating the crisis and spreading it globally. He also reiterated his firm belief that the emergence of new powers is essential in the context of the way the world is being governed.

Putin's direct message to world powers like China and India is that the end of American hegemony will mean the end of the West's fervor of democracy, the rule of law and universal human rights. These are commonly known as the 'liberal world order'.

Putin wants to say, Western controlled economic system is also going to be born. The idea has been floated by Russia for the past decade. Moscow has already introduced the ruble as the currency of exchange instead of the dollar. But one thing is clear that the system has not been implemented at the speed required to counter the negative impact of sanctions imposed by the West.

To the southern world, the President of Russia gave a speech of the former Soviet era combined with the present. That is, Moscow respects the sovereignty of each country and believes that each nation has the right to follow its own path. Putin drew attention to the continued economic dominance of the West and the exploitation of developing countries by the West through neo-colonial globalization.

Putin also spoke about the fragility of Western society in his speech. Putin is referring to those in the Western world who speak out against their regimes or disagree with mainstream cultural and social values. Putin specifically wants to play on the emotions of Western conservatives. He spoke of the traditional Christian essence of Western civilization. He dismissed the idea that there could be any other concept of sexuality beyond male and female, or the idea of homosexual rights. Putin emphasized in his speech that his problem is with Western elites, he has no conflict with Western common people.

Vladimir Putin also appealed to environmentalists in his speech. He claimed that the Western world is ignoring the issue of climate change at the height of the Ukraine conflict. In short, Putin in his speech asked the West, East and South to look at their own problems and the global crisis from a larger perspective. Asking everyone to look at the Ukraine war through a prism. That is — the crisis is not only Ukraine, but something much bigger than that.

Putin and the Kremlin now want to send a message to the world, especially the West, that they are very supportive of Ukraine. As the world is looking at the Ukraine issue with great importance, in fact this issue does not deserve that much importance. It is possible to solve this problem very simply through 'dialogue on the basis of equal opportunities'.

Of course, Moscow is playing an important role in fueling these crises. Russia is fueling new crises by waging a gas war with the European Union, thumbing down the UN grain deal, cutting Ukraine's wheat exports and exacerbating food shortages in the global South. Russia's goal is to divert the world's eyes from the Ukraine war and present the crisis as a small and regional issue.

Vladimir Putin

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