Putin to NTV: ‘Attempts To Create a Unipolar World Have Failed’

In addressing the global strategic situation in a Dec. 4 interview with Russia’s NTV, President Vladimir Putin pointed out that attempts to create a unipolar world “have failed.” This was inevitable, he said. “We now live in different times…. Russia has always clung to a point that we must respect the interests of others, while defending our own. This is how we are going to build our relations with our partners,” he underscored.

As reported by Sputnik, Putin discussed why the West has often turned a deaf ear to Moscow’s position on resolving military conflicts, citing as examples what he described as NATO’s “law-breaking bombardment” of Yugoslavia in 1999 and its operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995. The answer is quite simple, he said. “Only loud voices are listened to. But the situation is changing, and I think it’s not a secret for anyone that many of our partners now prefer to adhere to international law, because the global balance is gradually being restored.”

As he did last week at the Primakov Readings International Group in Moscow, Putin referred to the late Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov’s thoughts about the Arab Spring in the Mideast. The negative consequences of the Arab Spring, Putin said, occurred because key nations violated the norms of international law “to satisfy their geopolitical interests.” The Arab Spring led to the overthrow of the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, caused civil wars in Libya and Syria, and mass disorders in Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Oman, and other countries. “Using his knowledge about the region, and especially about the Middle East, using the experience and intuition,” Primakov could see what was coming, Putin explained. “No doubt, had his opinion been considered back then,” the situation wouldn’t have evolved as it did.

Russia, Putin said, “could not influence directly and practically the development of events, or our opportunities to influence those events were rather limited.” This was particularly true, he added, because key international players “preferred not to observe norms of the international law, but ….to follow their own geopolitical interests.”