On the 10th of February 2007, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of the Russian Federation delivered his famous Munich speech.

During the Cold War, the heads of the defence ministries of the NATO powers gathered in Munich. From 1993 onwards, the event became less militarised and began to invite not only NATO members, but also anyone deemed worthy of attention.

Vladimir Putin’s speech was devoted to the expansion of NATO, the problem in the field of disarmament, the unipolarity of modern world politics, the degradation of the OSCE institution, the vision of Russia’s place and role in the modern world, taking into account current realities and threats. In Western political circles, this has sparked controversy over the resumption of the Cold War.

The speech can be summarised as follows:

The Cold War left us with ideological stereotypes and other patterns of block thinking. The unipolar world is disastrous for everyone, including the sovereign, because it destroys it from the inside. And it has nothing to do with democracy. Russia is constantly being taught democracy by those who do not want to learn it themselves. Unilateral illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem — there are no fewer wars, even more people are dying in conflicts. The United States imposes its system of law on others, both economically and politically. Well, who would like that?

We need a new security architecture that takes into account the interests of all. The Soviet regime transformed peacefully, so why is it necessary to bomb now at every opportunity? Only the UN can use force, it is not necessary to replace it with NATO or the European Union. Why are they deploying missile defense in Europe? NATO expansion has nothing to do with security. Who is the target of this expansion? What happened to the assurances made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?

Among other things, thanks to the choice of the people of Russia, the Berlin Wall fell, and now new walls are being imposed on us. The OSCE was created to ensure the security of all, but in fact it has turned into a vulgar tool to ensure the interests of a group of countries. We would like to have responsible partners in order to build a world, in which security and prosperity would be not for a select few, but for all.

Alternatively, the speech can be listened to with English subtitles:

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