Mr. Putin: World order will change

"Those big, truly revolutionary changes will create a new world order that is more harmonious, fairer, safer and more community-oriented," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a business forum in Moscow on July 20.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a business forum in Moscow on July 20. Photo:TASS

According to Mr. Putin, in this new era of change, "only truly sovereign states can succeed." He defined truly sovereign states as those "with freedom for national and individual development, as well as the ability to succeed in technology, culture, knowledge, education," and a nationally oriented, responsible and active civil society.

Mr Putin believes that such a country would be an example for other countries in terms of "standards and quality of life of its people, protection of traditional values ​​and noble humanistic ideals".

"This kind of world is in stark contrast to the unipolar world order dominated by the West, which is holding back the development of our civilization," he said, accusing the West of "racism and neo-colonialism, increasingly resembling totalitarianism."

The Russian President said that despite the efforts of the Western elite to maintain the current world order, the above changes are "irreversible".

The US and Western countries have not commented on President Putin's statement.

Mr Putin has long spoken of the end of the unipolar world. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2007, the Russian president said that “the unipolar world proposed after the Cold War has not come true.” He explained that a unipolar world not only destroys everyone in that system, but also undermines sovereignty.

He also accused the US of ignoring "basic principles of international law", stressing that "unilateral and often illegal actions" have never solved any problems.

In May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope that Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, when completed, would force Western nations to "stop promoting the so-called unipolar world under the domination of the United States and its allies."

The idea of ​​a new “multipolar” world has also been discussed in the West, most recently by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. However, after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, the West announced its intention to “isolate” Moscow and impose unprecedentedly tough sanctions.

The Kremlin sees these actions as part of the West's efforts to "contain" Russia and maintain the current world order./.