Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a session of the General Assembly of the United Nations pointed out the seven most important points related to global geopolitics, the first point being the responsibility of the West, led by the US, for the desperate situation in the Middle East.
This article originally appeared at Politika translated by Stevo Marjanović exclusively for SouthFront
Because of mindless military interventions under the pretext of “democratic revolution,” the Middle East has been transformed into a huge time bomb, said Putin, as quoted by the Politico website.
The imposition of one system has never worked. The Soviet Union learned the hard way that it could not impose socialist revolutions, and the West should learn that it cannot export democratic revolutions.
As the second important point, he marked the role of the United Nations, which is not a gathering of Western powers, but an organization that is supposed to guarantee peace and security for all, not just certain benefits for a chosen country.
“From this point of view, only the UN has the right to form a coalition to combat Islamic state. If that does not happen, Europe will be flooded with millions of refugees, and no country will be safe from terrorists,” Putin said.
Thirdly, the Russian president considers the veto in the UNSC to be “completely normal.” This primarily refers to the condemnation of Russia in the United Nations Security Council for the acquisition of Crimea, and the Russian veto on the formation of a tribunal that would investigate and convict those found responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
The Russian president emphasizes that the confrontation of opinions and disagreement is a completely normal phenomenon.
As a fourth important point, Putin marked the situation in Syria. He said the West must understand that the government of Bashar al-Assad, no matter how flawed, is however, the only legitimate institution that exists in Syria. “Neither was the Gaddafi regime in Libya ideal, but what came afterwards can be called terror,” he said.
“Precisely coordinated and planned actions for the overthrow of a regime can leave much room for the birth of evil such as the Islamic State, whose current leaders became arrogant after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, who kept them under control” – said Putin.
“The moderate opposition” simply does not exist, which was shown by comical and extremely expensive attempts by the US to train and arm the Syrian rebels.
Fifth, the West must cut its appetite for the toppling of regimes it considers do not meet its ideals of human rights and freedom of the media. Putin in this group included Russia, telling the West to “stay away from the internal affairs of his country.”
The impact of primarily the United States’ meddling in Ukraine sparked bloody consequences and led to the war and more than 8,000 victims, Russian president said.
Sixth, the world must return to normal trade, harmonized under the auspices of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. This new order must not be the dictate of the strongest countries, but it must be fair and equal for all, including the combined markets of the EU and the Eurasian Union, advocated by the Russian president.
In such a world there would be no room for the imposing of sanctions because of political reasons and personal financial gain, believes Vladimir Putin, adding that sanctions against Russia should be abolished, because “the West knows it cannot achieve the desired effect.”
Seventh, the West must respect the logical and legitimate concerns of Russia about NATO expansion. After the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, NATO expansion can only be understood as a threat to Russia and a threat to its sovereignty, says Putin.
The speech by Vladimir Putin brought a new, sharper and more direct focus on world politics, and at the best place – the rostrum at which the eyes of the whole world were looking. The Russian President skillfully presented irrefutable facts about the mistakes made by the West in years of its interventions wrapped in their ideas, Politico evaluates.