Vladimir Putin shares sentiments on ‘crisis of liberalism’

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday took part in the final plenary session at the 19th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club held in Moscow, Russia.

The extensive plenary session mainly focused on matters related to the international order, such as how the world is changing and, most importantly, who, in fact, is at the helm of the world, who runs it, and whether the world is amenable to being run at all.

Putin took the podium to address a number of global topics, including liberalism and hegemony, noting that the age of Western global dominance is becoming a thing of the past, and the world has the most important decade ahead since the end of World War II.

According to the Russian leader, the modern liberalism has change beyond recognition, into absurdity, when alternative points of view are being declared undermining, and any criticism is perceived as “Kremlin’s machinations”.

The neo-liberal model of the world “a la America” he says, is suffering not merely systemic, but doctrinal crisis. “They simply have nothing to offer the world except for their dominance,” he stated.

Putin cautioned that the West’s belief in its infallibility is dangerous, because it is one step away from the “desire of the most infallible to simply destroy those they don’t like, to ‘cancel’ them, as they say.”

“But history will set everything straight and will ‘cancel’ those who somehow thought themselves entitled to order the world culture around on their own whim.

“The global civilization is based on traditional societies with their traditional values, which, unlike the neo-liberal ones, are unique to every country. The West is entitled to have dozens of genders and gay prides, but must not seek to impose it on others,” he stressed.

The four day-long forum brought together 111 experts, politicians, diplomats and economists from Russia, as well as 40 foreign countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Turkiye, and Uzbekistan, just to name a few.