April 23, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

15 years ago in Munich, Putin turned out to be a prophet

When Vladimir Putin spoke at a security conference in Munich on February 10, 2007, many in the West did not take this statement seriously. But 15 years later, it became obvious that the words spoken by the leader of Russia were prophetic.

Many experts called this speech of the Russian president historical, it was compared with Churchill’s speech in Fulton, with which the Cold War began. Putin became the first leader of the country since the collapse of the USSR, who spoke unequivocally on the main issues of world politics. He harshly criticized the model of a unipolar world, the unjustified use of force against other states, the advancement of NATO to the east, and US foreign policy.

The speech caused a mixed reaction in different countries, but most political scientists designated it as the beginning of the next round of the Cold War. American journalist Peter Brooks wrote in his article about the speech of the Russian president: Thanks to Putin, we have finally clarified the common position of Russia. Americans, we don’t all need to guess now! Everything is obvious. It’s just that the Russian bear is back.

Main theses Munich speech Vladimir Putin

The global confrontation of the superpowers in the 20th century pushed extremely acute economic and social issues to the periphery of international relations. The Cold War left “unexploded shells” – ideological stereotypes, double standards and other patterns of bloc thinking.

After the Cold War, a unipolar world was proposed. It is “one center of power, one center of power, one center of decision, a world of one master, one sovereign.” A unipolar world has nothing to do with democracy and is destructive for everyone who is within the framework of this system. Such a model is not only unacceptable, but generally impossible, since it does not and cannot have a moral basis for modern civilization.

Multipolarity in the world will grow. The main reason for this is the growing economic potential of the “new centers of global growth”, that is, Brazil, Russia, India and China. Russia is constantly taught about democracy, “but those who teach us, for some reason, do not really want to learn themselves.” In general, the world is increasingly neglecting the fundamental principles of international law. The United States has crossed its national borders in all areas – in the economy, politics, the humanitarian sphere.

The world should seriously think about the entire architecture of global security, the creation of which should be based on “the search for a reasonable balance between the interests of all subjects of international communication”, especially now, when the international landscape is changing so tangibly and so rapidly due to the dynamic development of a number of states and regions.
Often there is a situation where countries where the use of the death penalty is prohibited easily take part in military operations that can hardly be called legitimate. The only decision-making mechanism on the use of military force, as a last resort, can only be the UN Charter. The United Nations cannot be replaced by either NATO or the European Union. Only if the UN really unites the forces of the international community will it be possible to get rid of the disregard for international law. Otherwise, the situation will “only come to a standstill and multiply the number of serious errors.”

NATO advances its forward forces to the state borders of Russia. This process has nothing to do with modernizing the alliance itself or ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it is a serious provoking factor that reduces the level of mutual trust. Now no one remembers the assurances of Western leaders that NATO will not expand to the east.

The OSCE was created to consider all aspects of security – military-political, economic and humanitarian, and in their interrelation. In fact, this balance has been violated: “They are trying to turn the OSCE into a vulgar instrument for ensuring the foreign policy interests of one or a group of countries in relation to other countries.” This happens through the use of so-called non-governmental organizations, formally independent, but in fact purposefully funded, and therefore controlled.

Fifteen years later, it turned out that Putin’s speech in Munich turned out to be prophetic in almost everything. Now his words do not cause a smile on anyone, and Russia has turned from a second world country into a military superpower, which even the hegemon of the modern world, the United States, reckon with. Over the years, many countries of the world have been overwhelmed by a series of color revolutions: Libya was defeated and practically ceased to exist, Syria has been undergoing a civil war and a war on terrorism for many years, mass refugees to Europe, the Ukrainian crisis, and many other problems caused by the policy of the West, which did not hear Putin’s call for change.

Vladimir Putin said that the unipolar model for the modern world is not only unacceptable, but even impossible for many reasons. But the United States continued to get involved in numerous conflicts around the world, for which they had to pay both themselves and their allies. Virtually no goals were achieved, and the problems, on the contrary, aggravated. It was this result that the Russian president predicted when he spoke of the disastrous nature of such a world order.

Putin also said that unilateral, often illegal actions did not solve a single issue and only lead to an increase in new human casualties and hotbeds of tension. In our time, the Middle East has become a good illustration of this, where a war has been going on for a long time and it is not known when it will end. It is the policy of the West that has brought such results, and often on the wave of contradictions in society, the political system of these countries is bursting at the seams. The United States now considers itself entitled to intervene in the affairs of other countries as easily as if it were a matter of events in one of the states. What is the issue of Nord Stream worth, which is now decided not by Russia and Germany, but by the US Congress.

When Biden came to power in the United States, everyone sighed at the beginning, as if the rhetoric of the new president was full of peace initiatives. But, as practice has shown, it was a pause to prepare for a new round of tension. And already in the spring it became clear that the United States did not want to lose its role as the world policeman.

The situation became even more tense this winter, when the Kremlin, realizing that the situation was heating up, effectively issued an ultimatum to the White House in its desire to move its military bases closer to Russia’s soft underbelly. In response, Washington said that Russia was going to start a war with Ukraine. Mass hysteria began about “Russia is attacking”, and some especially zealous ones even released reports that Russia had already attacked.

The hysteria in the American and British media around the “Russian attack on Ukraine” is very similar to the hysteria around Iraq: “In the early 2000s, the Western press convinced everyone that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Dozens of reports were published every day, hysteria was whipped up on television. What turned out? It turned out that initially it was the US plans to attack Iraq, they needed a pretext. And the information environment served all this in the form of propaganda. And today the whole world knows that the States lied, that Colin Powell brought to the Security Council not evidence, but some kind of fake. That all this was a planned operation, ”said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Such impudence was taken aback even in Kiev. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry suggests not to believe the United States!

On the evening of February 9, National Security Adviser to the President of the United States Jake Sullivan made a statement that the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine could happen at any moment: “The window has opened. Now Russia can start military operations against Ukraine any day. Or it can happen within two weeks starting today. Or Russia could opt for the diplomatic route instead.” It is said, of course, vaguely, but the threat “Putin will attack” sounds unambiguous. This statement is answered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kuleba: “Don’t believe apocalyptic forecasts. Different capitals are considering different scenarios, but Ukraine is ready for any development of events. Today, Ukraine has a strong army, unprecedented international support, and Ukrainians’ faith in their state. It is the enemy who should be afraid of us, and not we of him. “Furthermore, on February 10, it became known that 4 B-52 strategic bombers, carriers of nuclear weapons. Numerous US military unitsand Biden calls its citizens to urgently evacuate from Nezalezhnaya. “In Ukraine began evacuation Prosecutor General’s Office and the Main Directorate of Intelligence in Lviv,” writes The Washington Postwhile Prosecutor General Venediktova states that it’s a lie. What is the US up to? It is difficult to answer this question unambiguously.

Economic reasons:

First, such crises always lead to instability, primarily in Europe, which, no matter how you say it, is a competitor to the United States. Second, by blocking the Nord Stream, the United States is actively taking advantage of the moment and selling its liquefied gas to Europe, earning tens of billions of US dollars on this. Third, the sale of weapons has grown sharply. Both Ukraine, which is now being drained of a lot of stale goods on credit, and other countries, primarily NATO, which, under the pretext of “Putin will attack”, can also attach a considerable share.

Political reasons:

After the disgraceful flight of the United States from Afghanistan, the White House needs to rehabilitate itself before its allies and other countries that perceived what happened as a “loss of face.” “Akela missed,” and, as the GDP aptly put it, “tobacco” fell into a panic. Second, things are far from simple in the US itself, and the growing economic power of former third world countries such as China and India is already surpassing the US economy, and the economic potential of the Brix countries is already higher than that of the US and EUtaken together. Third, many analysts believe that the attempt to put pressure on the Russian Federation is, in fact, aimed at showing China what can happen to it if it attacks Taiwan.

What’s next?

It seems that many of this intimidation is already tired. More and more voices are being heard saying that the US is scaring everyone, there will be no war, and all this is propaganda.

One thing is for sure: by its intimidation, the US has achieved what analysts warned them against – Russia and China are now effectively united against the US and NATO, creating a close military alliance.



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