Ukraine war

World faces most dangerous decade since World War II: Putin

President Vladimir Putin said he thought constantly of the Russian losses in Ukraine but only Russia could guarantee the territorial integrity of the country. (Sergei Karpukhin/Sputnik via Reuters)

The world is facing the most perilous decade since World War II, as Western elites try to avert the inevitable decline of the United States and its allies' global supremacy, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin accused the United States of fueling the war in Ukraine on Thursday, adding that the West is engaged in a "dangerous, violent, and dirty" geopolitical game that sows havoc around the globe.

Ultimately, he stated, the West will have to discuss the future of the globe with Russia and other big powers.

Putin warned the Valdai Discussion Club, a forum of international policy specialists, that the era of the West's uncontested domination over world affairs is coming to an end.

"We are at a historical crossroads: the next decade will likely be the most violent, unpredictable, and consequential since the end of World War II."

Despite the current phase of the conflict, he added, Russia did not consider the West to be its enemy. Moscow "had a single message" for the "major nations of the West and NATO": "let's quit being adversaries and live together."

According to the White House, Putin's words were not new and did not reflect a shift in his strategic objectives, especially in Ukraine.

"All set for discussions"

Russia's incursion into Ukraine on February 24 precipitated the greatest confrontation with the West since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when the Soviet Union and the United States came closest to nuclear war.

Tens of thousands of people have been slaughtered as the West has slapped the harshest sanctions ever on Russia, one of the world's largest natural resource providers.

Putin stated that Moscow was prepared for discussions to settle the situation in Ukraine, but that Kyiv was not willing to negotiate.

"It is not a question about us; we are willing to negotiate. "However, Kyiv's leaders chose not to continue dialogue with Russia," he stated. It is quite simple to resolve this issue if Washington sends Kyiv a signal to shift its posture and resolve the issue peacefully.

Since attempts at a negotiated settlement failed in the opening weeks of the crisis, there have been no peace negotiations, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly ruled out a negotiated agreement with Putin.

Putin, when asked about the possibility of a nuclear escalation, stated that the risk of nuclear weapon use will persist as long as nuclear weapons exist.

He stated that Moscow has no plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. "We do not find that necessary. It serves no use, neither political nor military."

"Dirty trick"

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, warned that "the more the United States is pushed into assisting the Kiev dictatorship on the battlefield, the more they risk precipitating a direct military conflict between the world's two largest nuclear powers with disastrous repercussions."

Putin, citing a 1978 Harvard lecture by the Russian dissident and author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, asserted that the West was overtly racist and looked down on the rest of the world's inhabitants.

Putin stated, "The so-called West has staked its game on world dominance, but the game is deadly, brutal, and, dare I say, dirty." "As the saying goes, the sower of wind shall harvest the storm."

Putin portrayed the Ukraine crisis as a struggle between the West and Russia for the fate of the second-largest Eastern Slavic nation. He stated that it was partially a "civil war" because Russians and Ukrainians were the same people. Kyiv categorically rejects both of these notions.

Putin stated that he frequently considers Russia's losses in Ukraine, but that only Russia could ensure Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Putin stated, "I have always believed in common sense, so I am certain that sooner or later the new centers of the multipolar international order and the West will have to have an equitable conversation about our shared destiny - and the sooner the better."

Publish : 2022-10-28 07:30:00

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