Russia will immediately put on the agenda the use of all available weapons if a direct attack is carried out on its territory, including the Kaliningrad region. This was stated by Vladimir Putin during the plenary session of the XXIII annual meeting of the International Discussion Club “Valdai“.
“This is not a threat, but a response to an attempt to threaten us“, said Putin, answering a question about whether Russia and NATO are approaching a direct conflict. He did not specify whether it was necessarily about nuclear weapons, but said that Russia has means that "no one else has" and will determine which ones to use.
The statement followed Moscow's warning to NATO about a possible blockade or isolation of the Kaliningrad region. The Associated Press cited NATO's position that the alliance is not targeting Kaliningrad and its military activities do not pose a threat to Russia.
Putin: World is entering a turning point
At the beginning of his speech, Putin said that the world had reached a "decisive turning point" and sooner or later it would have to agree on the principles of a new world order. He said the withdrawal of Western hegemony would change the international system, but the transition would be accompanied by risks and ongoing conflicts.
The Russian president accused Western countries of using the topic of the Russian threat to divert the attention of their citizens from domestic problems. He said that Russia was not planning an attack on a European country "neither in 2029, nor in 2030, nor in 2050."
Putin supported a "fair reform" of the United Nations. According to him, the structure of the organization should better reflect the role of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and international institutions should once again fulfill their function of limiting conflicts. The main theses on the multipolar world and the change of the UN were summarized by “Fontanka“.
Artificial intelligence and the risk of “digital totalitarianism“
A significant part of the speech was devoted to artificial intelligence. Putin warned that its rapid spread could lead to the depersonalization of people and their transformation into a single “common denominator“.
He said that algorithms would take on more and more responsibilities, including in the military sphere, but the final decisions should remain human. According to him, the use of artificial intelligence in war could turn combat operations into a computer game and lead to “savagery“. Putin also warned that a possible digital totalitarianism would be as bleak and hopeless as the totalitarian regimes of the past.
Ukraine, the West and the Future of Relations
Putin repeated the Russian version of the reasons for the war in Ukraine. "We did not start the war, they started the war with us," he said, accusing the West of putting Russia in a position where it was forced to defend itself with weapons.
The Russian president said that Ukraine's neutral status remained Moscow's goal. He said that Russian forces are monitoring the origin of weapons supplied to Ukraine, but this does not mean that Russia will immediately strike the enterprises that produce them.
According to him, Russia is ready to resume dialogue with the United States on limiting strategic arms, as well as to talk with the European Union and individual European countries without preconditions. Putin also proposed discussing a trilateral format between Russia, the United States and China.
He also said that 98% of Russia's nuclear forces have been modernized, and said that Moscow does not want the collapse of the European Union, although it believes that the bloc itself could be weakened by its internal economic and political problems.
Sources: Fontanka, Mash