This is the live stream video. The transcript is now being posted as it becomes available.
Update: Transcript complete.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Schwab, dear Klaus,
Colleagues,
I have been to Davos many times, attending the events organised by Mr Schwab, even back in the 1990s. Klaus [Schwab] just recalled that we met in 1992. Indeed, during my time in St Petersburg, I visited this important forum many times. I would like to thank you for this opportunity today to convey my point of view to the expert community that gathers at this world-renowned platform thanks to the efforts of Mr Schwab.
First of all, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to greet all the World Economic Forum participants.
It is gratifying that this year, despite the pandemic, despite all the restrictions, the forum is still continuing its work. Although it is limited to online participation, the forum is taking place anyway, providing an opportunity for participants to exchange their assessments and forecasts during an open and free discussion, partially compensating for the increasing lack of in-person meetings between leaders of states, representatives of international business and the public in recent months. All this is very important now, when we have so many difficult questions to answer.
The current forum is the first one in the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century and, naturally, the majority of its topics are devoted to the profound changes that are taking place in the world.
Indeed, it is difficult to overlook the fundamental changes in the global economy, politics, social life and technology. The coronavirus pandemic, which Klaus just mentioned, which became a serious challenge for humankind, only spurred and accelerated the structural changes, the conditions for which had been created long ago. The pandemic has exacerbated the problems and imbalances that built up in the world before. There is every reason to believe that differences are likely to grow stronger. These trends may appear practically in all areas.
Needless to say, there are no direct parallels in history. However, some experts – and I respect their opinion – compare the current situation to the 1930s. One can agree or disagree, but certain analogies are still suggested by many parameters, including the comprehensive, systemic nature of the challenges and potential threats.
We are seeing a crisis of the previous models and instruments of economic development. Social stratification is growing stronger both globally and in individual countries. We have spoken about this before as well. But this, in turn, is causing today a sharp polarisation of public views, provoking the growth of populism, right- and left-wing radicalism and other extremes, and the exacerbation of domestic political processes including in the leading countries.
All this is inevitably affecting the nature of international relations and is not making them more stable or predictable. International institutions are becoming weaker, regional conflicts are emerging one after another, and the system of global security is deteriorating.
Klaus has mentioned the conversation I had yesterday with the US President on extending the New START. This is, without a doubt, a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, the differences are leading to a downward spiral. As you are aware, the inability and unwillingness to find substantive solutions to problems like this in the 20th century led to the WWII catastrophe.
Of course, such a heated global conflict is impossible in principle, I hope. This is what I am pinning my hopes on, because this would be the end of humanity. However, as I have said, the situation could take an unexpected and uncontrollable turn – unless we do something to prevent this. There is a chance that we will face a formidable break-down in global development, which will be fraught with a war of all against all and attempts to deal with contradictions through the appointment of internal and external enemies and the destruction of not only traditional values such as the family, which we hold dear in Russia, but fundamental freedoms such as the right of choice and privacy.
I would like to point out the negative demographic consequences of the ongoing social crisis and the crisis of values, which could result in humanity losing entire civilisational and cultural continents.
We have a shared responsibility to prevent this scenario, which looks like a grim dystopia, and to ensure instead that our development takes a different trajectory – positive, harmonious and creative.
In this context, I would like to speak in more detail about the main challenges which, I believe, the international community is facing.
The first one is socioeconomic.
Indeed, judging by the statistics, even despite the deep crises in 2008 and 2020, the last 40 years can be referred to as successful or even super successful for the global economy. Starting from 1980, global per capita GDP has doubled in terms of real purchasing power parity. This is definitely a positive indicator.
Globalisation and domestic growth have led to strong growth in developing countries and lifted over a billion people out of poverty. So, if we take an income level of $5.50 per person per day (in terms of PPP) then, according to the World Bank, in China, for example, the number of people with lower incomes went from 1.1 billion in 1990 down to less than 300 million in recent years. This is definitely China’s success. In Russia, this number went from 64 million people in 1999 to about 5 million now. We believe this is also progress in our country, and in the most important area, by the way.
Still, the main question, the answer to which can, in many respects, provide a clue to today’s problems, is what was the nature of this global growth and who benefitted from it most.
Of course, as I mentioned earlier, developing countries benefitted a lot from the growing demand for their traditional and even new products. However, this integration into the global economy has resulted in more than just new jobs or greater export earnings. It also had its social costs, including a significant gap in individual incomes.
What about the developed economies where average incomes are much higher? It may sound ironic, but stratification in the developed countries is even deeper. According to the World Bank, 3.6 million people subsisted on incomes of under $5.50 per day in the United States in 2000, but in 2016 this number grew to 5.6 million people.
Meanwhile, globalisation led to a significant increase in the revenue of large multinational, primarily US and European, companies.
By the way, in terms of individual income, the developed economies in Europe show the same trend as the United States.
But then again, in terms of corporate profits, who got hold of the revenue? The answer is clear: one percent of the population.
And what has happened in the lives of other people? In the past 30 years, in a number of developed countries, the real incomes of over half of the citizens have been stagnating, not growing. Meanwhile, the cost of education and healthcare services has gone up. Do you know by how much? Three times.
In other words, millions of people even in wealthy countries have stopped hoping for an increase of their incomes. In the meantime, they are faced with the problem of how to keep themselves and their parents healthy and how to provide their children with a decent education.
There is no call for a huge mass of people and their number keeps growing. Thus, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in 2019, 21 percent or 267 million young people in the world did not study or work anywhere. Even among those who had jobs (these are interesting figures) 30 percent had an income below $3.2 per day in terms of purchasing power parity.
These imbalances in global socioeconomic development are a direct result of the policy pursued in the 1980s, which was often vulgar or dogmatic. This policy rested on the so-called Washington Consensus with its unwritten rules, when the priority was given to the economic growth based on a private debt in conditions of deregulation and low taxes on the wealthy and the corporations.
As I have already mentioned, the coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated these problems. In the last year, the global economy sustained its biggest decline since WWII. By July, the labour market had lost almost 500 million jobs. Yes, half of them were restored by the end of the year but still almost 250 million jobs were lost. This is a big and very alarming figure. In the first nine months of the past year alone, the losses of earnings amounted to $3.5 trillion. This figure is going up and, hence, social tension is on the rise.
At the same time, post-crisis recovery is not simple at all. If some 20 or 30 years ago, we would have solved the problem through stimulating macroeconomic policies (incidentally, this is still being done), today such mechanisms have reached their limits and are no longer effective. This resource has outlived its usefulness. This is not an unsubstantiated personal conclusion.
According to the IMF, the aggregate sovereign and private debt level has approached 200 percent of global GDP, and has even exceeded 300 percent of national GDP in some countries. At the same time, interest rates in developed market economies are kept at almost zero and are at a historic low in emerging market economies.
Taken together, this makes economic stimulation with traditional methods, through an increase in private loans virtually impossible. The so-called quantitative easing is only increasing the bubble of the value of financial assets and deepening the social divide. The widening gap between the real and virtual economies (incidentally, representatives of the real economy sector from many countries have told me about this on numerous occasions, and I believe that the business representatives attending this meeting will agree with me) presents a very real threat and is fraught with serious and unpredictable shocks.
Hopes that it will be possible to reboot the old growth model are connected with rapid technological development. Indeed, during the past 20 years we have created a foundation for the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution based on the wide use of AI and automation and robotics. The coronavirus pandemic has greatly accelerated such projects and their implementation.
However, this process is leading to new structural changes, I am thinking in particular of the labour market. This means that very many people could lose their jobs unless the state takes effective measures to prevent this. Most of these people are from the so-called middle class, which is the basis of any modern society.
In this context, I would like to mention the second fundamental challenge of the forthcoming decade – the socio-political one. The rise of economic problems and inequality is splitting society, triggering social, racial and ethnic intolerance. Indicatively, these tensions are bursting out even in the countries with seemingly civil and democratic institutions that are designed to alleviate and stop such phenomena and excesses.
The systemic socioeconomic problems are evoking such social discontent that they require special attention and real solutions. The dangerous illusion that they may be ignored or pushed into the corner is fraught with serious consequences.
In this case, society will still be divided politically and socially. This is bound to happen because people are dissatisfied not by some abstract issues but by real problems that concern everyone regardless of the political views that people have or think they have. Meanwhile, real problems evoke discontent.
I would like to emphasise one more important point. Modern technological giants, especially digital companies, have started playing an increasing role in the life of society. Much is being said about this now, especially regarding the events that took place during the election campaign in the US. They are not just some economic giants. In some areas, they are de facto competing with states. Their audiences consist of billions of users that pass a considerable part of their lives in these eco systems.
In the opinion of these companies, their monopoly is optimal for organising technological and business processes. Maybe so but society is wondering whether such monopolism meets public interests. Where is the border between successful global business, in-demand services and big data consolidation and the attempts to manage society at one’s own discretion and in a tough manner, replace legal democratic institutions and essentially usurp or restrict the natural right of people to decide for themselves how to live, what to choose and what position to express freely? We have just seen all of these phenomena in the US and everyone understands what I am talking about now. I am confident that the overwhelming majority of people share this position, including the participants in the current event.
And finally, the third challenge, or rather, a clear threat that we may well run into in the coming decade is the further exacerbation of many international problems. After all, unresolved and mounting internal socioeconomic problems may push people to look for someone to blame for all their troubles and to redirect their irritation and discontent. We can already see this. We feel that the degree of foreign policy propaganda rhetoric is growing.
We can expect the nature of practical actions to also become more aggressive, including pressure on the countries that do not agree with a role of obedient controlled satellites, use of trade barriers, illegitimate sanctions and restrictions in the financial, technological and cyber spheres.
Such a game with no rules critically increases the risk of unilateral use of military force. The use of force under a far-fetched pretext is what this danger is all about. This multiplies the likelihood of new hot spots flaring up on our planet. This concerns us.
Colleagues, despite this tangle of differences and challenges, we certainly should keep a positive outlook on the future and remain committed to a constructive agenda. It would be naive to come up with universal miraculous recipes for resolving the above problems. But we certainly need to try to work out common approaches, bring our positions as close as possible and identify sources that generate global tensions.
Once again, I want to emphasise my thesis that accumulated socioeconomic problems are the fundamental reason for unstable global growth.
So, the key question today is how to build a programme of actions in order to not only quickly restore the global and national economies affected by the pandemic, but to ensure that this recovery is sustainable in the long run, relies on a high-quality structure and helps overcome the burden of social imbalances. Clearly, with the above restrictions and macroeconomic policy in mind, economic growth will largely rely on fiscal incentives with state budgets and central banks playing the key role.
Actually, we can see these kinds of trends in the developed countries and also in some developing economies as well. An increasing role of the state in the socioeconomic sphere at the national level obviously implies greater responsibility and close interstate interaction when it comes to issues on the global agenda.
Calls for inclusive growth and for creating decent standards of living for everyone are regularly made at various international forums. This is how it should be, and this is an absolutely correct view of our joint efforts.
It is clear that the world cannot continue creating an economy that will only benefit a million people, or even the golden billion. This is a destructive precept. This model is unbalanced by default. The recent developments, including migration crises, have reaffirmed this once again.
We must now proceed from stating facts to action, investing our efforts and resources into reducing social inequality in individual countries and into gradually balancing the economic development standards of different countries and regions in the world. This would put an end to migration crises.
The essence and focus of this policy aimed at ensuring sustainable and harmonious development are clear. They imply the creation of new opportunities for everyone, conditions under which everyone will be able to develop and realise their potential regardless of where they were born and are living
I would like to point out four key priorities, as I see them. This might be old news, but since Klaus has allowed me to present Russia’s position, my position, I will certainly do so.
First, everyone must have comfortable living conditions, including housing and affordable transport, energy and public utility infrastructure. Plus environmental welfare, something that must not be overlooked.
Second, everyone must be sure that they will have a job that can ensure sustainable growth of income and, hence, decent standards of living. Everyone must have access to an effective system of lifelong education, which is absolutely indispensable now and which will allow people to develop, make a career and receive a decent pension and social benefits upon retirement.
Third, people must be confident that they will receive high-quality and effective medical care whenever necessary, and that the national healthcare system will guarantee access to modern medical services.
Fourth, regardless of the family income, children must be able to receive a decent education and realise their potential. Every child has potential.
This is the only way to guarantee the cost-effective development of the modern economy, in which people are perceived as the end, rather than the means. Only those countries capable of attaining progress in at least these four areas will facilitate their own sustainable and all-inclusive development. These areas are not exhaustive, and I have just mentioned the main aspects.
A strategy, also being implemented by my country, hinges on precisely these approaches. Our priorities revolve around people, their families, and they aim to ensure demographic development, to protect the people, to improve their well-being and to protect their health. We are now working to create favourable conditions for worthy and cost-effective work and successful entrepreneurship and to ensure digital transformation as the foundation of a high-tech future for the entire country, rather than that of a narrow group of companies.
We intend to focus the efforts of the state, the business community and civil society on these tasks and to implement a budgetary policy with the relevant incentives in the years ahead.
We are open to the broadest international cooperation, while achieving our national goals, and we are confident that cooperation on matters of the global socioeconomic agenda would have a positive influence on the overall atmosphere in global affairs, and that interdependence in addressing acute current problems would also increase mutual trust which is particularly important and particularly topical today.
Obviously, the era linked with attempts to build a centralised and unipolar world order has ended. To be honest, this era did not even begin. A mere attempt was made in this direction, but this, too, is now history. The essence of this monopoly ran counter to our civilisation’s cultural and historical diversity.
The reality is such that really different development centres with their distinctive models, political systems and public institutions have taken shape in the world. Today, it is very important to create mechanisms for harmonising their interests to prevent the diversity and natural competition of the development poles from triggering anarchy and a series of protracted conflicts.
To achieve this we must, in part, consolidate and develop universal institutions that bear special responsibility for ensuring stability and security in the world and for formulating and defining the rules of conduct both in the global economy and trade.
I have mentioned more than once that many of these institutions are not going through the best of times. We have been bringing this up at various summits. Of course, these institutions were established in a different era. This is clear. Probably, they even find it difficult to parry modern challenges for objective reasons. However, I would like to emphasise that this is not an excuse to give up on them without offering anything in exchange, all the more so since these structures have unique experience of work and a huge but largely untapped potential. And it certainly needs to be carefully adapted to modern realities. It is too early to dump it in the dustbin of history. It is essential to work with it and to use it.
Naturally, in addition to this, it is important to use new, additional formats of cooperation. I am referring to such phenomenon as multiversity. Of course, it is also possible to interpret it differently, in one’s own way. It may be viewed as an attempt to push one’s own interests or feign the legitimacy of one’s own actions when all others can merely nod in approval. Or it may be a concerted effort of sovereign states to resolve specific problems for common benefit. In this case, this may refer to the efforts to settle regional conflicts, establish technological alliances and resolve many other issues, including the formation of cross-border transport and energy corridors and so on and so forth.
Friends,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This opens wide possibilities for collaboration. Multi-faceted approaches do work. We know from practice that they work. As you may be aware, within the framework of, for example, the Astana format, Russia, Iran and Turkey are doing much to stabilise the situation in Syria and are now helping establish a political dialogue in that country, of course, alongside other countries. We are doing this together. And, importantly, not without success.
For example, Russia has undertaken energetic mediation efforts to stop the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, in which peoples and states that are close to us – Azerbaijan and Armenia – are involved. We strived to follow the key agreements reached by the OSCE Minsk Group, in particular between its co-chairs – Russia, the United States and France. This is also a very good example of cooperation.
As you may be aware, a trilateral Statement by Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia was signed in November. Importantly, by and large, it is being steadily implemented. The bloodshed was stopped. This is the most important thing. We managed to stop the bloodshed, achieve a complete ceasefire and start the stabilisation process.
Now the international community and, undoubtedly, the countries involved in crisis resolution are faced with the task of helping the affected areas overcome humanitarian challenges related to returning refugees, rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, protecting and restoring historical, religious and cultural landmarks.
Or, another example. I will note the role of Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United States and a number of other countries in stabilising the global energy market. This format has become a productive example of interaction between the states with different, sometimes even diametrically opposite assessments of global processes, and with their own outlooks on the world.
At the same time there are certainly problems that concern every state without exception. One example is cooperation in studying and countering the coronavirus infection. As you know, several strains of this dangerous virus have emerged. The international community must create conditions for cooperation between scientists and other specialists to understand how and why coronavirus mutations occur, as well as the difference between the various strains.
Of course, we need to coordinate the efforts of the entire world, as the UN Secretary-General suggests and as we urged recently at the G20 summit. It is essential to join and coordinate the efforts of the world in countering the spread of the virus and making the much needed vaccines more accessible. We need to help the countries that need support, including the African nations. I am referring to expanding the scale of testing and vaccinations.
We see that mass vaccination is accessible today, primarily to people in the developed countries. Meanwhile, millions of people in the world are deprived even of the hope for this protection. In practice, such inequality could create a common threat because this is well known and has been said many times that it will drag out the epidemic and uncontrolled hotbeds will continue. The epidemic has no borders.
There are no borders for infections or pandemics. Therefore, we must learn the lessons from the current situation and suggest measures aimed at improving the monitoring of the emergence of such diseases and the development of such cases in the world.
Another important area that requires coordination, in fact, the coordination of the efforts of the entire international community, is to preserve the climate and nature of our planet. I will not say anything new in this respect.
Only together can we achieve progress in resolving such critical problems as global warming, the reduction of forestlands, the loss of biodiversity, the increase in waste, the pollution of the ocean with plastic and so on, and find an optimal balance between economic development and the preservation of the environment for the current and future generations.
My friends,
We all know that competition and rivalry between countries in world history never stopped, do not stop and will never stop. Differences and a clash of interests are also natural for such a complicated body as human civilisation. However, in critical times this did not prevent it from pooling its efforts – on the contrary, it united in the most important destinies of humankind. I believe this is the period we are going through today.
It is very important to honestly assess the situation, to concentrate on real rather than artificial global problems, on removing the imbalances that are critical for the entire international community. I am sure that in this way we will be able to achieve success and befittingly parry the challenges of the third decade of the 21st century.
I would like to finish my speech at this point and thank all of you for your patience and attention.
Thank you very much.
Klaus Schwab: Thank you very much, Mr President.
Many of the issues raised, certainly, are part of our discussions here during the Davos Week. We complement the speeches also by task forces which address some of the issues you mentioned, like not leaving the developing world behind, taking care of, let’s say, creating the skills for tomorrow, and so on. Mr President, we prepare for the discussion afterwards, but I have one very short question. It is a question which we discussed when I visited you in St Petersburg 14 months ago. How do you see the future of European-Russian relations? Just a short answer.
Vladimir Putin: You know there are things of an absolutely fundamental nature such as our common culture. Major European political figures have talked in the recent past about the need to expand relations between Europe and Russia, saying that Russia is part of Europe. Geographically and, most importantly, culturally, we are one civilisation. French leaders have spoken of the need to create a single space from Lisbon to the Urals. I believe, and I mentioned this, why the Urals? To Vladivostok.
I personally heard the outstanding European politician, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, say that if we want European culture to survive and remain a centre of world civilisation in the future, keeping in mind the challenges and trends underlying the world civilisation, then of course, Western Europe and Russia must be together. It is hard to disagree with that. We hold exactly the same point of view.
Clearly, today’s situation is not normal. We need to return to a positive agenda. This is in the interests of Russia and, I am confident, the European countries. Clearly, the pandemic has also played a negative role. Our trade with the European Union is down, although the EU is one of our key trade and economic partners. Our agenda includes returning to positive trends and building up trade and economic cooperation.
Europe and Russia are absolutely natural partners from the point of view of the economy, research, technology and spatial development for European culture, since Russia, being a country of European culture, is a little larger than the entire EU in terms of territory. Russia’s resources and human potential are enormous. I will not go over everything that is positive in Europe, which can also benefit the Russian Federation.
Only one thing matters: we need to approach the dialogue with each other honestly. We need to discard the phobias of the past, stop using the problems that we inherited from past centuries in internal political processes and look to the future. If we can rise above these problems of the past and get rid of these phobias, then we will certainly enjoy a positive stage in our relations.
We are ready for this, we want this, and we will strive to make this happen. But love is impossible if it is declared only by one side. It must be mutual.
Klaus Schwab: Thank you very much, Mr President.
Well..
https://sputniknews.com/uk/202101271081895349-uk-foreign-secretary-vows-to-freeze-russian-assets-if-london-finds-them-threatening-citizens-lives/
Plus UK Kiev and Turkey working more collaboratively together against Russia
https://southfront.org/london-ankara-and-kiev-create-informal-alliance-against-russia/
So how will that be dealt with by Russia
Kiev has passed a law authorising more US and Nato troops to be stationed in Ukraine
https://southfront.org/ukrainian-parliament-approved-increase-in-number-of-us-nato-troops-deployed-for-drills/
Never will there be an easier time?
With other words Putin just begging the EU again, to wake up and let common sense prevail in joining together on equal terms – European Culture, Technology und Russias abundance of Resources – Putin knows to well, that otherwise another goofyasswar is just around the corner – Nordstream 2 could be the breaking point!
I did not intend to do a transcript, only listen but I started taking notes that became more complete but I am not a stenographer or typist by any means. So it is what it is and not edited after that. Contain textual errors as well:
Presiden Vladimir Putin:
Present concerns that we share today.
The recent development with coronavirus epidemic .
Joe Biden has signalled a willingness to extend the start treaty.
We should be aware that during the recent development of upheavals, civilizations and cultures may be lost.
key challenges today.
1. even considering economics meltdown 2008 2020 past 40 years has been successful. globalization has led to a surge in developing countries, Billions of people went out of poverty. Russia went down from 53 million in 1999 to 5 million recently.
Benefit of global growth. Developing countries capatilized on export their products. jobs and export revenues. But Social difficulties broadening gap. Corporations in US and EU capitalized, not the people here.
half of their peoples having the same incomes. education, health care went up 3 times. Millions of people with same income with increasing costs.
30% live under the normal income standards.
Private debt and privatization, the private economy dropped most .Loss of jobs continues to grow. Tension is on the rise also caused by Coronavirus.
Stimulation of economy n o longer has required capacity.
Interest rates are almost zero.
Can no more stimulate economy traditionally based on pumping liquidity into the economy.
Gaps could lead to shock.
Booming rise based on technology, 4th industrial revolution based on AI.
covid accelerate AI .
A lot of people would be out of job. The middle class, the core of any society.
2nd fundamental challenge.
community challenge,
tension. social and economic issues result in social uproar.
that must be addressed.
Society would be split .
There are real reasons for itregardless of different views.
Real problems cause misconsent.
Technology giants compete with states. Billions of users. People spend a lot of time there, they actually have a monopoly. People wonder do such a monopoly harmonize with democratic values?\\
Right of the people to live, speak out. We have seen that this are not in harmony with these rights. Government find scapegoats in international scene, retoric is rising , more pressure on countries that disagree. Legal sanctions, restriction it IT and telecom, may also rise the risk of use of force, false flag operations may cause this. These are concerns for Russia.
Mix of challenges and threaths we still need to keep our sentiment.
We still need to work together to identify the sources of that international tension. Stability is at stake we have to move forward to restore ectonomic stability that are stable and overcome social economic balances.
We have to rely on physical stimulus and central banks.
We need to see more cooperation between countries.
The world cannot just build an economy to sustain only 1 billion people.
We need to start to do something.
We need action equality between nations and further on globally.
alignment in the economy.
Everything should have a level playing field regardless of where they are born.
People must have.
1. a comfortable place of living. utilities and good environment. stable income a decent way of life.
2. To get decent retirement package.
3. quality healthcare.
access to modern healthservice.
4. children need to have access to education. cornerstone of a new economy.
this is not an exhaustive list. inclusive and sustainable goals that Russia is pursuing. To provide the right conditions for people.
There is interdepencies between nations and understanding Russia’s pursuing such goals should create understanding and cooperation.
We would neeed ot strengthen our international institutions in international law. They were set up in a different era. It could be hard to address contemporary issues. But the institutions are still relevant today. We have to focus on mulilateralism. The views of different nations.
There is a lot of potential for cooperation.
We have helped to stabilize Syria. Russia has taken mediation efforts in the Ngorno Karabakh conflict. Russia France and the US. It has been largely implemented. We managed to stop bloodshed. To stabilize the situation.
The Virus now has several variants. We need to bring together specialist to establish the differences, to coordinate our efforts. We need to provide access to vaccines. Assist those that need assistance. To make vaccines available. An example of a shared threath. Epidemic defies borders.
to learn lessons for the future.
Another important area , preservation.
Protecting our nature.
Words have been heard before. Keep our forests, prevent plastic. We need to work together.
Competition between has never stopped it will continue because of this. It is natural. We have achieved great results. It is the time to step up.
Focus on the real problems. Improve imbalances. We will achieve great success. We hopefully may have success during 2021.
Response to Schwab. \We share the same culture. Culture is what unites us.
Russia is part of Europe, one civilization. We need to create a shared space from Lisbon to Ural or Vladivostok.
Euorpe culture must remain by such shared spheres, Russia and Europe should be together. Today situation is not normal, we need to come back to a more positive agenda. The epidemic has dealt a blow to all of us, Europe is one of our key economic partners. We discuss today return to normal relations. wer are natural partner in terms of our economy and trade/. Russia is a european culture. there should be no phobias, we should not be politizing anything, not these problems there are today. We should rise above these quartrels as of today. It cannot be a one way street.
Scwab thanking: TYank you very much Mr. president.
Get real!!! B. Gates and company believe in a total world population of only 1 Billion ( at most) and they are running things—the national state is obsolete as far as they are concerned. In addition they have made a pact of the devil with the old elite, Mr. Klaus, being an example thereof.
But a diplomatic speech was what was necessary at an economic forum and so Mr. Putin did so–not mentioning Syria, Ukraine, Poland.
If it is a parallel of 1930’s ( but sans counter weight of worker’s organizations and parties) …it behooves Russia not to make the same mistakes with fascism in yet another guise. Events move much quicker these days.
The dig about Vladivostok was great!!! Wouldn’t they just love to further balkanize Russia? Yes, a wide, rich country rightly proud of its people which it counts as a resource ( not as useless eaters). You go, Vlad!!!
Well Teranam, I made this synthesis (which began as just notes) before the full transcript was available so I thought it might be useful. It is sort of capturing the essence . But I did not make any effort of proofreading
and I left out Scwab completely, only his thanking the President at the end is Schwab.
I am not sure if I misunderstood your comment on Vladivostok , but maybe you mistook my notes.
So it is President Putin’s answer to SchwabPresident Putin’s response to Schwab questioning: “Russia is part of Europe, one civilization. We need to create a shared space from Lisbon to Ural or Vladivostok.”
And I agree with that , Russia is part of Europe and always was. The cold war, the Iron curtain aimed at distancing and isolating Russia from Europe, and was one of Winston Churchill’s staged operations, I say staged since Churchill was handled by the Rothschild’s and also paid his enourmous bills and debts.
I think it is clear that Russia want to reestablish close ties with Europe and that is obviously the way to go. The global “Schwamp” of course try all they can to hinder this.
from John4Truth notes of Putin’s speech: “Technology giants compete with states. Billions of users. People spend a lot of time there, they actually have a monopoly. People wonder do such a monopoly harmonize with democratic values?”
This is an important question by Putin, because the final decades of the 20th century have seen democratic governments of Western Europe systematically transferring our public services into private hands: more and more of society is being controlled by fewer and fewer and ever less answerable people. It is no use saying “You are free to Protest” or “Boycott”; these things are public services, how do we boycott or protest against ourselves? The return of public services to public control is an urgent priority of democratic governments in the 21st century.
Yes, I agree with you about the importance of this. The Tech giants have misused their positions and created a monopoly in chaout with the state. In the U.S.A. there has been numerous Congress hearings with the Tech giants, and they have been given a “carte blanche” a blank card, a thumbs up if you will. Because nothing has been done about the problem. Besides that there is the other side of it. Having the state control social media is the same as creating the perfect totalitarian platform for full ideological spectrum dominance.
What has happened here is that the tech giants are based and started from the U.S.A. where there is a constitution saying that there is freedom of speech. The state has become the Middle Man, the man in the middle attack, that sees the possibilities of indirect censorship. The state and the tech giants are one and the same, created from CIA, from IBM, who put their patsy’s in there to work for the deep state as it is often called.
Example: Google was created by CIA directly. (that was even in Wikipedia). The deep state was also behind Bill Gates to create IBM/Microsoft alliance back in the day. The software was based on stolen technology. CIA put in the “Sugar Mountain” Zuckerberg to create Facebook. Based on stolen technology everyone that now hack the users for deep state (the stand-in government) surveillance and control.
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/799485/leader-technologies-inc-v-facebook-inc/
Leader Technologies Inc. invented the social media software and the Deep state stole it, to create systems under their control, so it is a state controlled system indirectly. The Congress in the U.S.A. are simply also under their control, enourmous payoffs and other means of control, the servants of the Deep state. So that is a direct violation of the U.S. constitution they are involved in and creating the legislative basis for.
The solution is simply to apply the Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution serve as the basis for the U.N. Rights laws that are already or should be implemented. So the situation is a matter of falsification by the state or governments.
Private companies or corporations are subject to national and international law. The present situation are in violation of national and international law so the correction is simple. Any more state or government involvement is not needed at all. They should keep their noses out of the subject altogether – from the start. There is freedom of speech, and not freedom of government.
The dogs bark, and the caravan goes on…
“Mr president, we are keen to hear from you…”
“Mr Schwaab, dear Klaus, we met for the first time in 1992…”
But we need heroes and stories, otherwise the world becomes hell.
“The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.”
Job 6:18
Very sane… Mr Putin is very clear… what it will take for russia and for humanity to survive…
There’s official English transcrpion on kremlin.ru (it was still in work couple hours ago).
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/64938
The short Q&A session following president Putin’s speech is also noteworthy, because he said that the only way for Europe to survive is in cooperation with Russia.
He was quoting Helmut Kohl…he says he agrees with increased European – Russian integration but not sure his vision is the same. I doubt he is thinking of joining EU…
Unilateral use of a miitary force….under a far fetched pretext….
Iran the objective….just as Syria was missile attacked by USA on an emotional pretence ..just practising on that occaision for a bigger event later?
Oh….and USA and Taiwan seem to be majorly upsetting China deliberately provocatively on some claim for democracy on China territory.
“Obviously, the era linked with attempts to build a centralised and unipolar world order has ended. To be honest, this era did not even begin. A mere attempt was made in this direction, but this, too, is now history. The essence of this monopoly ran counter to our civilisation’s cultural and historical diversity.”
That shook a few true believers in the “nwo” vision i would think.
I can only assume from this speech of President Putin’s that he is happy that Russia comes under the aegis of “Europe” and that the maps put out by the Collective West – given that Europe is, as we all know, under the thumb of America – continue to re-label Russia as Eurasia, the once Russian Steppes as the European Steppes and accepts that the phrase ‘Taiga’ is to be abandoned, since it is “merely” (sic) a Russian word meaning “wood” {Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago, USA}.
All we need now is a Dunkin bloody Donuts dominating Red Square, and the Europeanisation of Russia will complete.
Pamela, all my life long I have regarded Russia as part of Europe “from Dublin to Vladivostok”. In fact I used that very phrase in conversation with a minor French cultural attache’ twenty years ago; he did not look pleased, so I guess the anti-Russian rot had already set in, among bureaucrats of the burgeoning EU$A. Cultural surgery cannot excise Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoievsky, Tolstoy, Chekov, Gorky, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn from the collective mind of Europe. Nor can historical surgery remove from the body politic of Europe the liberating effect of Russia’s defeat of 2 great dictators — Napoleon and Hitler — and the inspiration of Communist Russia for the development of Socialism across Europe between 1918 and 1980.
That the world is now going backwards, and old antagonisms (going back to Shakespeare’s time) are currently resurfacing, cannot (in my opinion) erase this fundamental cultural unity of Europe “from Dublin to Vladivostok”.
“A mess of Russians” — Shakespeare, Loves Labours Lost
According to me -and I have written that before- Russia is not really Western Europa at most only a part of it. Although “westernisation” is happening. Russia is a bridge between the East and West. The Russian spirit is very different from Western Europe. It is in one sense far more mystic. That is my experience when interacting with Russian friends.
I am not a Russophile nor have I even visited the country, yet I find this speech wonderfully encouraging. The speech was artfully diplomatic, but in subtle but clear ways said the following points that are important from my perspective:
1. Rather than fall into lockstep with the globalist agenda, Russia will continue with diplomatic efforts to harmonize with other countries while remaining a sovereign country.
2. We hold family, business (work leading to support of family and personal property), and human freedoms as sacred.
3. You can forget your Great Reset. It is not just the current incarnation of a dying fantasy, but an already dead one.
4. We will not be ruled by the attempted tech takeover of the world.
There were more critical points, but I just mention these few now because they outline the battlefield of the moment. And not Russia’s battlefield, but that of all decent human beings against the evil totalitarian movement represented by Schwab (and others). This movement represents complete madness as has been seen many times in human history.
We are at a critical point, analogous to transition of a system from simple to chaotic dynamics. In such times, it is particularly difficult to see the future. This speech, in my opinion, represents an important structural point that will define the period we are moving towards. As Biden & co. flip-flop in the turbulent currents of the psychopathic forces attempting world takeover, Putin has staked Russia’s position in traditional values and human decency.
Commentary article by Rostislav Ishenko
https://www.stalkerzone.org/munich-esque-davos/
Jolly good effort by the speech writers too.
This speach by President Putin is encouraging and the kremlin has taken a stand against this Satanic Cult of the western International globalist. To hear a Government put the people first as it should be says Russia has principles and true excellent states men…. I take my hat off Mr Puton and convinced me to believe there is hope for humanity. Again Russia proving they have Morals with family coming first, I think they just have taken first place from even Iran with that Graceful to the ears speach based on polite grown up statesmen with no evil world agenda leaves me filled with hope again, Small light shines for sure now Russia is on board with humanity, Iran, Syria, North Korea now for certain China will declare simular speach in near future hopefully, we pray and its simular to China’s culture rapidly taking there people out of poverty to a medium prosperity for everyone policy was encouraging aswell….. particularly their believes if all have employment, decent high end wages, all have homes and have a healthy life makes the best workers and healthy society I can go along with that. In the mean time God have mercy on us and peace be upon the Lord.
This is the best summary and analysis of Mr Putin’s speech ever. He likens this speech to a new Yalta. When I started reading I flashed back to Mr Putin asking the members of the Security Council to come together in a new forum because of the changes in our world – we all started calling that Yalta2. They never got there, but Mr Putin and Mr Xi Jinping continued their talks. So, they did not come, but Putin did it anyway, the new Yalta. And as you can see from the analysis:
“And look, 80 people from among the most influential people on the planet did not laugh in Putin’s face, as it was in 2007 in Munich, and without noise and dust immediately after his open speech signed up for a closed conference with him.”
https://www.stalkerzone.org/munich-esque-davos/
(Aaah, I just saw that JJ already posted this. Apologies, but this is so good that it deserves more than one posting :-)
Agreed. Ishchenko is a brilliant analyst.
Hi Amarynth,
This was a very important analysis of the significance of President Putin’s speech to virtual Davos (after a 12 year absence).
Could the Saker and site get permission to post this analysis by Ishchenko as a separate article/post? – so all the readers are aware of this analysis of his speech..
Its title the “Munich-esque Davos” in its self tells us how important this speech was by VVP and its significance to the current climate the world is facing today. Thank you.
Hi Veritas, yes, good thought there.
I kicked the ball and asked for permission. Let’s see what we get from our very own ptb :-)
Just for you Veritas, in the watch list – /munich-esque-davos/
When Putin arrived he really was the right man for the right time!
With Vladimir Putin it’s always steady as she goes. The ship sails a strait course. No surprises, nothing erratic, absolutely correct. Not exactly the stuff of compelling narratives that sell news stories. But that’s not what statesmanship is for. Real statesmanship is about the achievement of strategic goals. As I understand these matters, for better or worse, Putin started off with the policy announced within the Party back in the 80s. They wanted to restore the old Europe in some sense, to what it was prior to the Bolshevik revolution of the First War era, a Europe where Russia had a seat at the table and a say in matters. We are well aware of the Nato view: Russia out, America in, Germany down. But the Party leadership of the 80s believed that this would change one day and judging by President Putin’s comments there has been no change of course despite the incessant injuries and insults vended by the Atlanticists ever since Putin’s rise. In the Classic of Changes the most frequent moral recommendation is: ‘patience and perseverance’. Capable Russian leadership and exceptional diplomacy will have its way. Watch. Don’t hold your breath, but keep your eyes peeled.
There’s this, but since the rise of Putin something else has happened. China. China has altered the picture. The picture that we’re looking at now is not just the stretch from Lisbon to Vladivostok but now envelopes the entirety of Asia and Asia’s connections to Africa and Latin America. Russian strategic aims and Chinese aims have become harmonised. This did not entail any course alterations, mainly, as I think, because the real goals of the Kremlin are enlightened and very much on the up and up. Most people, not excluding Russia supporters, just don’t get it. For them, life is just a zero sum struggle and it cannot be otherwise. Hence they would not actually read the transcripts such as the one here considered. But that said, and roughly speaking, China is the rising power flexing it’s economic muscle while Russia is the active diplomatic power in the political business of vending security.
Russian military technology can shoot down anything that flies and sink anything that floats. Russian diplomacy is in an excellent position to address the security concerns of it’s many neighbors and partners. As well, Russia is the leading exporter of grains and energy products. Recall Kissinger: ‘control oil and you control industry; control food and you control populations’. Now control is not Russia’s policy, but securing peaceful and prosperous circumstances wherein the Sino/Russian vision of a sovereign states system can flourish is. And it’s working. Putin called attention to the relative success of Astana and subsequently the war between the Azeris and Armenians. An interesting development of recent days is Washington assigning the Saudis to the doghouse. Perhaps the fresh air will do them some good. But be that as it may, if the Gulf monarchs can’t look to America for security, even as the Iranians are developing significant ties to the Chinese, what might be the next move? Time is on Russia’s side. In such an eventuality we might witness the beginning of the end of the cycle of jihadi militias as the primary foot soldiers with which to threaten Russia’s ‘soft underbelly’. The middle class and professional elite Gullenists have already been neutralised. This is important. If there were to be a significant shift of policy on the part of the Gulf monarchs, this could well be a major game changer, as they say. Then the numerous bases in Asia sink to the level of useless cannon fodder.
They say the Ridin with Biden gang is back in town. It’s got all the tongues wagging. Especially the return of the dreaded Cookie Monster excites fears for all those young inexperienced Russian minds glued to their social media, and what with elections coming up, yes, all true, but even so I have yet to work myself into a lather about these things. I continue in the confidence that the pilots in the captains tower have things headed in the right direction.
It’s good to also look at president Xi’s speech as well. There’s a clear alignment between the speeches of both presidents.