Prague, Oct 29 (CTK) – President Vladimir Putin keeps sending the West the same message: Russia does not have a role that such a power deserves and that the USA refuses to recognise, Zbynek Petracek writes in daily Lidove noviny (LN) on Saturday in relation to the present meeting of Putin’s Valdai Forum in Sochi.
Some may interpret Putin’s speeches at similar forums as messianic messages to the West, while others may consider them Russian revanchism for the defeat in the Cold War and for the disintegration of its own empire, Petracek writes.
However, still more important than Putin’s message is his reaction to the lacking Western reaction. This concerns the present meeting of the international Valdai Forum, but it is even more apparent in retrospective, Petracek says.
At a security conference in Munich in 2007, Putin for the first time declared that Russia is a superpower which should be more respected, especially by the United States. The West did not react to his arguments then and Western media mostly ignored his speech, but one and a half years later all were surprised when Russian tanks intervened in Georgia, Petracek writes.
At the 10th Valdai Forum in September 2013, Putin repeated his message and the West again considered it messianic or revanchist. Five months later, all were surprised when Putin concluded that the Maidan revolution is an anti-Russian conspiracy of the West and when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula that was part of Ukraine, Petracek says.
He says Putin is again repeating the old arguments now: some countries change the order of the world according to its own interests; those who bombed Belgrade, Iraq and Libya should accept Russian air strikes in Aleppo.
If the USA declare a no-fly zone in Syria, nobody should be surprised that Russia may consider it a reason for a military reaction, Petracek writes.
