**Key points from Putin’s speech at the plenary session of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club:**

Troubling trends in international affairs are forcing us to think first and foremost about preserving global peace “right now”;

Technology is taking the potential for universal destruction, whether through conflicts or the loss of control over technological processes, to a new level;

As the world moves away from Western hegemony, the global situation will change for the better;

Russia supports the idea of a fair reform of the UN, but Putin said this is currently impossible without internal consensus;

International institutions created after 1945 no longer reflect the state of the world in the second quarter of the 21st century;

On Ukraine, Putin said the truth is that Russia did not start the fighting; rather, fighting was started against Russia;

Russia was deliberately placed in a situation where it was forced to defend itself with arms in hand and respond to aggression;

Putin again appealed to the West: “Let’s live as friends”;

The former hegemons will inevitably have to recognize the realities of a multipolar world;

Sooner or later, the international situation will reach a balance, but this will not happen quickly;

The collapse of the USSR was a genuine tragedy for tens of millions of people who woke up overnight to find themselves living abroad;

Putin accused the late Soviet leadership of naivety, carelessness and blind trust in the West;

Despite Russia’s years-long attempts to become part of Western civilization, there were attempts to break the Russian Federation apart;

A nation needs a perspective: without the past there is no future, but without a future the past loses its meaning;

Escalation is never one-sided, and the point at which nothing can be changed may come very quickly and unexpectedly for everyone;

Putin pointed to the risks posed by the use of weapons capable of destroying all living things;

Putin said the world needs to once again raise the question of rules governing armed confrontation;

Russian forces have always been guided by humanitarian norms and have never been the first to attack non-military targets, Putin said;

Russia’s proposed Greater Eurasian Partnership is acquiring particular significance.

Subscribe [@NewResistance](https://t.me/NewResistance)