I have been trying to communicate with the citizens of the United States of America.\u00a0 \u00a0As president of the world\u2019s largest and second most dangerously armed nation, I believe what I have to say about foreign affairs and U.S.-Russian relations should interest the wealthiest and most powerful people on earth.\u00a0 But I\u2019m having trouble getting my message through.\u00a0 American media outlets are clogged with news about the alcohol, drug, and sexual misadventures of such personages as Lindsay, Britney, and Paris, and, as a rather short, almost-sinister looking judo expert and former KGB officer in charge of that mysterious cold giant over there somewhere, I realize I\u2019m overwhelmed in the glamour game.\u00a0 When publicly mentioned in the United States, I\u2019m usually being poleaxed for what the world\u2019s moral arbiters feel are my moves restricting freedom in my own country as well as in new countries formerly part of the Soviet Empire.<\/p>\n
I will take but an instant to say I disagree with such observations as do seventy percent of Russians who have long certifiably backed my leadership.\u00a0 President George W. Bush, burdened by a rather lower approval rating, sometimes laments that I\u2019m ruining democracy in Russia.\u00a0 My laconic reply has been: \u201cWe certainly would not want the kind of democracy they have in Iraq.\u201d \u00a0Regarding Dick Cheney\u2019s criticism of my statecraft, I simply said, \u201cStatements of this sort by the vice president are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot.\u201d\u00a0 At any rate, this piece does not concern my shortcomings but focuses on the dangerous results of current United States foreign policy. \u00a0\u00a0My most comprehensive statements on the subject came in February 2007 at the Munich Conference on Security Policy.\u00a0 As the coverage then was neither thorough nor sustained, I here offer you the key points on a website that spans the country and encircles the globe.<\/p>\n
The United States is the most powerful nation on earth, as Americans daily remind everyone, but the citizens of that undeniably great nation need to remember that a \u201cunipolar world\u201d is one with but a single \u201ccenter of authority, one center of force, one center of decision making.\u00a0 It is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign.\u00a0 And at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201c(Additionally,) unilateral and frequently illegitimate actions have not resolved any problems.\u00a0 Moreover, they have caused new human tragedies and created new centers of tension.\u00a0 Judge for yourselves: wars as well as local and regional conflicts have not diminished\u2026And no less people perish in these conflicts \u2013 even more are dying than before.\u00a0 Significantly more, significantly more.\u00a0 Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force \u2013 military force \u2013 in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts.\u00a0 As a result we do not have sufficient strength to find a comprehensive solution to any one of these conflicts.\u00a0 Finding a political settlement also becomes impossible\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a greater and greater disdain for international law.\u00a0 And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state\u2019s legal system.\u00a0 (That state,) the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way.\u00a0 This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd of course this is extremely dangerous.\u00a0 It results in the fact that no one feels safe.\u00a0 I want to emphasize this \u2013 no one feels safe.\u00a0 Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them.\u00a0 Of course such a policy stimulates an arms race.\u00a0 The force\u2019s dominance inevitably encourages a number of countries to acquire weapons of mass destruction.\u00a0 Moreover, significantly new threats \u2013 though they were also well-known before \u2013 have appeared, and today threats such as terrorism have taken on a global character.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security.\u00a0 And we must proceed by searching for reasonable balance between the interests of all participants in the international dialogue.\u00a0 Especially since the international landscape is so varied and changes so quickly \u2013 changes in light of the dynamic development in a whole number of countries and regions.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are witnessing great economic growth in India and China, and their combined \u201cpurchasing power\u2026is already greater than that of the United States.\u00a0 And a similar calculation with\u2026Brazil, Russia, India and China surpasses the cumulative gross domestic product of the European Union.\u00a0 And according to experts this gap will only increase in the future.\u00a0 There is no reason to doubt that the economic potential of the new centers of global economic growth will inevitably be converted into political influence and will strengthen multipolarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn connection with this the role of multilateral diplomacy is significantly increasing.\u00a0 The need for principles such as openness, transparency and predictability in politics is uncontested and the use of force should be a really exceptional measure, comparable to using the death penalty in the judicial systems of certain states.\u00a0 (In civilized international society, I must emphasize that) the use of force can only be considered legitimate if the decision is sanctioned by the UN\u2026 (In that manner) the UN will truly unite the forces of the international community and can really react to events in various countries. (And as we) leave behind this disdain for international law, then the situation will be able to change.\u00a0 Otherwise\u2026serious mistakes will be multiplied\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cDear ladies and gentlemen!\u00a0 The potential danger of the destabilization of international relations is connected with obvious stagnation in the disarmament issue.\u00a0 Russia supports the renewal of dialogue on this important question.\u00a0 It is important to conserve the international legal framework relating to weapons destruction and therefore ensure continuity in the process of reducing nuclear weapons.\u00a0 Russia intends to fulfill the obligations it has taken on, (for) the principles (of arms reduction) are universal…\u201d<\/p>\n
At a time when many other countries \u2013 North Korea, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Israel, for example \u2013 are developing the very \u201csmall- and medium-range missiles\u201d that Russia and the United States have been destroying, \u201cit is impossible to sanction the appearance of new, destabilizing high-tech weapons.\u201d\u00a0 We must not have a \u201cnew area of confrontation, especially in outer space.\u00a0 Star wars is no longer a fantasy \u2013 it is a reality.\u00a0 In the mid 1980\u2019s our American partners were already able to intercept their own satellite.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Russia\u2019s opinion, the militarization of outer space could have unpredictable consequences for the international community, and provoke nothing less than the beginning of a nuclear era.\u00a0 And we have come forward more than once with initiatives designed to prevent the use of weapons in outer space\u2026<\/p>\n
(Naturally,) \u201cplans to expand certain elements of the anti-missile defense system to Europe cannot help but disturb us.\u00a0 Who needs the next step of what would be, in this case, an inevitable arms race?\u00a0 (After all,) missile weapons with a range of three to five thousand miles that really pose a threat to Europe do not exist in any of the so-called problem countries.\u00a0 And in the near future and prospects, this will not happen and is not even foreseeable.\u00a0 And any hypothetical launch of, for example, a north Korean rocket to American territory through western Europe obviously contradicts the laws of physics\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd here in Germany I cannot help but mention the pitiable condition of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe\u2026The adapted treaty was signed in 1999.\u00a0 It took into account a new geopolitical reality, namely the elimination of the Warsaw bloc.\u00a0 Seven years have passed and only four states have ratified this document, including the Russian Federation.\u00a0 NATO countries openly declared they will not ratify this treaty\u2026until Russia removed its military bases from Georgia and Moldova.\u00a0 Our army is leaving Georgia (and the mere) 1,500 servicemen in Moldova are carrying out peacekeeping operations and protecting warehouses with ammunition left over from Soviet times\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what is happening at the same time?\u00a0 Simultaneously (the Americans and NATO have) put frontline forces on our borders (even as) we continue to strictly fulfill the treaty obligations and do not react to these actions at all\u2026It is obvious that NATO expansion does not have any relation with the modernization of the alliance or with ensuring security in Europe.\u00a0 On the contrary, it represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust.\u00a0 And we have the right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended?\u00a0 And what happened to the assurance our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?\u00a0 Where are those declarations today? \u00a0No one remembers them.\u201d<\/p>\n
So I will remind you.\u00a0 In May 1990 the NATO General Secretary said, \u201cThe fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are these guarantees?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stones and concrete blocks of the Berlin Wall have long been distributed as souvenirs.\u00a0 But we should not forget that the fall of the Berlin Wall was possible thanks to a historic choice \u2013 one that was also made by our people, the people of Russia \u2013 a choice in favor of democracy, freedom, openness, and a sincere partnership with all the members of the big European family.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now they are trying to impose new dividing lines and walls on us \u2013 these walls may be virtual but they are nevertheless dividing, ones that cut through our continent.\u00a0 And is it possible that we will once again require many years and decades, as well as several generations of politicians, to dissemble and dismantle these walls?\u201d<\/p>\n
In a couple of weeks, at his family compound in Kennebunkport, I will be asking George W. Bush many essential questions.\u00a0 And I expect straight answers.\u00a0 In fact, I insist on them.\u00a0 A weak and belligerent U.S. president isn\u2019t going to push around a popular and peaceful Russian president.\u00a0 President Bush needs to beware: if he attacks I\u2019ll subdue him with my favorite move, a sweeping hip throw.<\/p>\n
Editorial note: Everything in quotes belongs to President Vladimir Putin.\u00a0 He and his writers produced a seminal speech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been trying to communicate with the citizens of the United States of America.\u00a0 \u00a0As president of the world\u2019s largest and second most dangerously armed nation, I believe what I have to say about foreign affairs and U.S.-Russian relations should interest the wealthiest and most powerful people on earth.\u00a0 But I\u2019m having trouble getting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[188,162,189,187,929],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n