{"id":198377,"date":"2021-11-01T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=198377"},"modified":"2021-10-27T04:52:37","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T03:52:37","slug":"the-world-according-to-vladimir-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/11\/the-world-according-to-vladimir-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"The World According to Vladimir Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Russian president, in Sochi, lays down the law in favor of conservatism \u2013 says the woke West is in decline.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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23 Oct 2021 – <\/em>The plenary session is the traditional highlight of the annual, must-follow Valdai Club discussions<\/a> \u2013 one of Eurasia\u2019s premier intellectual gatherings.Vladimir Putin is a frequent keynote speaker. In Sochi this year, as I related in a previous column<\/a>, the overarching theme was “global shake-up in\u00a0the\u00a021st<\/sup>\u00a0century: the\u00a0individual, values and\u00a0the\u00a0state.”<\/p>\n

Putin addressed it head on, in what can already be considered one of the most important geopolitical speeches<\/a> in recent memory (a so-far incomplete transcript can be found here<\/a>) \u2013 certainly his strongest moment in the limelight. That was followed by a comprehensive Q&A session<\/a> (starting at 4:39:00).<\/p>\n

Predictably, assorted Atlanticists, neocons and liberal interventionists will be apoplectic. That\u2019s irrelevant. For impartial observers, especially across the Global South, what matters is to pay very close attention to how Putin shared his worldview \u2013 including some very candid moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right at the start, he evoked the two Chinese characters that depict \u201ccrisis\u201d (as in \u201cdanger\u201d) and \u201copportunity,\u201d melding them with a Russian saying: \u201cFight difficulties with your mind. Fight dangers with your experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This elegant, oblique reference to the Russia-China strategic partnership led to a concise appraisal of the current chessboard:<\/span><\/p>\n

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The re-alignment of the balance of power presupposes a redistribution of shares in favor of rising and developing countries that until now felt left out. To put it bluntly, the Western domination of international affairs, which began several centuries ago and, for a short period, was almost absolute in the late 20th<\/sup> century, is giving way to a much more diverse system.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That opened the way to another oblique characterization of hybrid warfare as the new modus operandi:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Previously, a war lost by one side meant victory for the other side, which took responsibility for what was happening. The defeat of the United States in the Vietnam War, for example, did not make Vietnam a \u201cblack hole.\u201d On the contrary, a successfully developing state arose there, which, admittedly, relied on the support of a strong ally. Things are different now: No matter who takes the upper hand, the war does not stop, but just changes form. As a rule, the hypothetical winner is reluctant or unable to ensure peaceful post-war recovery, and only worsens the chaos and the vacuum posing a danger to the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A disciple of Berdyaev<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In several instances, especially during the Q&A, Putin confirmed he\u2019s a huge admirer of Nikolai Berdyaev<\/a><\/strong>. It\u2019s impossible to understand Putin without understanding Berdyaev (1874-1948), who was a philosopher and theologian \u2013 essentially, a philosopher of Christianity.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Berdyaev\u2019s philosophy of history, the meaning of life is defined in terms of the spirit, compared with secular modernity\u2019s emphasis on economics and materialism. No wonder Putin was never a Marxist.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Berdyaev, history is a time-memory method through which man works toward his destiny. It\u2019s the relationship between the divine and the human that shapes history. He places enormous importance on the spiritual power of human freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Putin made several references to freedom, to family \u2013 in his case, of modest means \u2013 and to the importance of education; he heartily praised his apprenticeship at Leningrad State University. In parallel, he absolutely destroyed wokeism, transgenderism and cancel culture promoted \u201cunder the banner of progress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is only one among a series of key passages:<\/span><\/p>\n

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We are surprised by the processes taking place in countries that used to see themselves as pioneers of progress. The social and cultural upheavals taking place in the United States and Western Europe are, of course, none of our business; we don\u2019t interfere with them. Someone in the Western countries is convinced that the aggressive erasure of whole pages of their own history \u2013 the \u201creverse discrimination\u201d of the majority in favor of minorities, or the demand to abandon the usual understanding of such basic things as mother, father, family or even the difference between the sexes \u2013 that these are, in their opinion, milestones of the movement toward social renewal.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So a great deal of his 40 minute-long speech, as well as his answers, codified some markers of what he previously defined as \u201chealthy conservatism\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now that the world is experiencing a structural collapse, the importance of sensible conservatism as a basis for policy has increased many times over, precisely because the risks and dangers are multiplying and the reality around us is fragile.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Switching back to the geopolitical arena, Putin was adamant that \u201cwe are friends with China. But not against anyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Geoeconomically, he once again took time to engage in a masterful, comprehensive \u2013 even passionate \u2013 explanation of how the natural gas market works, coupled with the European Commission\u2019s self-defeating bet on the spot market, and why Nord Stream 2 is a game-changer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Afghanistan<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

During the Q&A, scholar Zhou Bo from Tsinghua University addressed one of the key, current geopolitical challenges. Referring to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, he pointed out that, \u201cif Afghanistan has a problem, the SCO has a problem. So how can the SCO, led by China and Russia, help Afghanistan?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Putin stressed four points in his answer:<\/span><\/p>\n