Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 28 addressed the plenary session of the World Russian People’s Council, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the organization’s founding, via videoconference.
The XXV World Russian People’s Council began its work in Moscow on November 27 dedicated to “the present and future of the Russian World.” On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the gathering and its head, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus.
‘Russia Fights for Freedom of Whole World’
Addressing the World Russian People’s Council plenary session, the Russian president expressed his gratitude to the forum’s participants for their support for Russian soldiers at the front, and the people of the Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions, who made the decision to reunite with Russia in 2022.
Vladimir Putin underscored that Russia’s special military operation, launched on February 24, 2022 is a battle for sovereignty, a battle for the right to be Russia, a “country-civilization.” Per him, it is a “national liberation” fight being waged against the “global hegemon.”
“It is our country, the Russian World – as has happened many times in history – that has got in the way of those who today claim world dominance, their exclusivity. We are now fighting for the freedom of not only Russia, but the whole world,” the Russian president underscored.
“We openly say that the dictatorship of one hegemon, we see it, everyone sees it now, is becoming decrepit. [This dictatorship] has gone into disarray, and has become dangerous for those around it. This is already clear to the entire world majority. But I repeat, it is our country that is now at the forefront of shaping a fairer world order.”
A lasting peace and stable world order are impossible without a sovereign and strong Russia, Putin underscored.
Geopolitics Live
“For several centuries, the idea of one scheme of development was imposed on humanity,” Sergey Perevezentsev, doctor of historical sciences, professor at the Department of History of Socio-Political Doctrines at Lomonosov Moscow State University, told Sputnik.
“[It said that] all nations must develop equally according to the same stages of development, according to the same scenarios. And the most ‘developed’ had ‘the right’ to dictate their will and explain to everyone how to develop. […] Two great Russian thinkers Nikolai Danilevsky and Konstantin Leontiev proposed to consider the world community not as a single civilization, but as a collection of separate independent civilizations, each of which has the right to develop on the basis of its own historical, spiritual, economic, social, family and values.”
Sergey Perevezentsev
History professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University
“This concept is being developed in Russia, and these theoretical provisions are becoming the basis of domestic and international politics. Russia is now offering this approach to the whole world: to consider the world as a collection of civilizations, each of which has the right to develop according to its own laws,” the professor underscored.
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Western Elites Guided by Russophobia, Racism, and Neo-Nazism
Vladimir Putin pointed out that a multinational Russia doesn’t fit into the West’s grand design. The Western elites “want to plunder and dismember Russia,” the president remarked.
“Today, Russophobia and other forms of racism and neo-Nazism have become almost the official ideology of the Western ruling elites,” he said. “They are directed not only against Russians, but also against all peoples of Russia: Tatars, Chechens, Avars, Tuvinians, Bashkirs, Buryats, Yakuts, Ossetians, Jews, Ingush , Mari, Altaians, there are many of us, I won’t name them all now, but I repeat, this is directed against all the peoples of Russia.”
Having failed to subdue and dismember Russia by force, the West may try to use various tools to destabilize the country from within, Putin said, warning against “interference or provocations with the aim of causing an interethnic or interreligious conflict in Russia.”
According to the president, any attempts to instrumentalize “terrorism and extremism” against Russia would be seen as “aggressive actions against our country” and would be followed by an appropriate response.
“The collective West is attacking traditional national, religious, cultural and spiritual values,” Perevezentsev said. “And resistance to this offensive on the part of Russia and all the peoples of Russia, not only the Russian people – this is also a form of national liberation struggle against enslavement by the so-called new anti-human values.”
“Under these [anti-human] values the anti-Russian campaign was begun [by the West] in Ukraine, which they tried and, in fact, turned into a battering ram to destroy the Russian World. Thus, in modern Ukraine, unfortunately, there is a rejection of traditional Orthodoxy, of the traditional friendship of peoples, and of the traditional union, and of traditional culture, and even of the traditional language.”
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Real Freedom and Sovereignty
Truly free people are those responsible for their country, the present, and future generations, the president continued, stressing that they are the only source of sovereign power.
“A free people who understand their responsibility to today and future generations is the only source of power, sovereign power, which is obliged to serve everyone – the entire people – and not, of course, someone’s private, corporate, class, or, especially, foreign interests,” he highlighted.
The president emphasized the role of the Russian people, stressing that being “Russian” is more than belonging to some specific nationality.
“Being Russian is, first of all, a responsibility. I repeat, a huge responsibility for preserving Russia. This is where true patriotism lies,” he said.
At the same time, without Russians as an ethnic group there cannot be Russia and the Russian World, according to Putin.
“The concept of the Russian World made possible the peaceful coexistence of different ethnic groups, different religions and, in general, very different people for many centuries,” Oleg Matveychev, political analyst, told Sputnik. “Not someone’s dictate, which they are now trying to present to us in the West, such as hegemonism, exploitation, and so on but a ‘symphony’ of different peoples and different cultures. This ability to hear each other, dialogue – this is precisely one of the main qualities of the Russian World.”
During his speech, the Russian president emphasized the inextricable historical connection between Ancient Rus’, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation, and condemned those who instigated separatism and artificially divided the peoples of Russia.
“The Russian World is a multinational community of the peoples of Russia, united around the Russian people as a civilization-forming, state-forming people within the framework of a common historical destiny,” Perevezentsev explained. “The Russian World is at least 1,000 years old, because the term ‘Russian World’ originated in the 11th century.”
“The Russian World is, among other things, a multicolor [coexistence] of religions. There is the diversity of various religious organizations, with the dominant role of the Russian Orthodox Church. […] The basis of the Russian World is the East Slavic Orthodox civilization. The connection of all three main Slavic peoples today: Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians is in a single religious, Orthodox, historical development,” the professor said.
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‘West’s Sanctions Blitzkrieg Failed’
Russia has become stronger, the Russian president said, calling for further industrial, cultural, and demographic development of the country.
“We have become stronger. Our historical regions have returned to Russia,” Putin said, referring to the Donbass, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, which reunified with Russia last year. “Society is abandoning superficial values and turns to true, authentic ones.”
Putin placed emphasis on the role of the state and national business in withstanding the pressure of Western sanctions which were unleashed on Russia in the wake of the beginning of the special military operation. The president highlighted that the West’s “sanctions blitzkrieg have failed.”
Meanwhile, Russian industries and creative businesses should step up domestic investments and create fair and decent conditions for their employees.
“We have to accomplish the task of developing vast spaces – from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic and the Black Sea. Our economy, industry, agriculture, new industries: creative industries and national business must increase their potential manifold,” Putin said.
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‘Russia Needs a Cultural Breakthrough’
The Russian president pointed out that sovereignty is impossible without a flourishing national culture. He stressed the importance of traditional values, including family, education, culture, and “wise words from spiritual guides.”
Putin singled out the unique harmonious collaboration between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state in the country. He noted that despite the church and state being separate in Russia, the church cannot be separated from a person or a society. The Russian president also emphasized the importance of all traditional religions in Russia.
The president announced that next year would be dedicated to family, stressing that a big traditional family is a source of spiritual strength and moral values.
“The Russian World has always, at all times, been formed in the process of forming these very traditional values, on the basis of which Russian civilization exists,” Perevezentsev said. “It has turned out that in today’s world, which [the Western elites] now want to turn us all into some kind of anti-human existence and actually destroy physical humanity as a species, this concept of a civilizational approach, which the president spoke about during his Valdai speech recently, it turned out to be the only one that opposes transforming humanity into something uniform, devoid of any national, ethnic, religious originality.”
The World Russian People’s Council, an international public organization and forum, was founded in May 1993. Patriarch Alexy II, then head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was the first head of the entity.
In 2005, the World Russian People’s Council was granted special consultative status with the United Nations (UN), and a representative office of the organization was created at the UN. Since February 1, 2009 the council has been led by Patriarch Kirill.
The organization promotes the spiritual, cultural, social, and economic revival of Russia; places emphasis on strengthening Russian statehood and bolstering the role of the Orthodox Church in the life of society.
Representatives of the authorities, the highest clergy of traditional religions of Russia, leaders of public associations, figures of science, education and culture, delegates of Russian communities from near and far abroad take part in the meetings of the World Russian People’s Council.
By Ekaterina Blinova
Published by Sputnik Globe
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.com.