European ‘hysteria,’ Trump’s ‘paper tigers’ comment, and MAGA values Putin’s messages for the West at this year’s Valdai Discussion Club Forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for nearly four hours at the annual Valdai Discussion Club on Thursday, delivering a wide-ranging address followed by a Q&A session. Alongside commentary on Russia’s economy, his personal ties with global leaders, and even his current bedside reading (Pushkin), Putin spent plenty of time speaking directly to (and about) the U.S. and the E.U., whom he portrayed as aggressors and Moscow’s adversaries. Meduza shares some of Putin’s main messages for the West.

On why the war in Ukraine is supposedly Europe’s fault

For [Western] countries, this situation […] is merely a pretext, a way to pursue their geopolitical goals, to expand their zone of control — and to make some money off the war. That’s why they “crept up to our doorstep” with NATO infrastructure, looked on indifferently for years at the tragedy in Donbas, at what was essentially genocide and the destruction of Russian people on our ancestral, historic lands, which began in 2014 after the bloody coup in Ukraine.

On Europe’s ‘hysteria’ over the risk of a Russian attack

Most people in Europe can’t make sense of why Russia is supposedly so frightening that, to confront it, they must keep tightening their belts, give up their own interests, and pursue policies that are clearly against their own well-being. Yet the ruling elites of united Europe continue to whip up hysteria. It turns out that war with the Russians is supposedly right at their doorstep. They repeat this nonsense, this mantra, over and over again. Honestly, I sometimes watch what they say and think, ‘They can’t possibly believe it.’ […] Frankly, it makes you want to say to them, ‘Calm down, sleep peacefully, and finally deal with your own problems.’

On whether it’s time for Russia to conduct new nuclear tests

Certain parties are preparing such tests — we can see it, we know it. And if they happen, we will do the same.

On Trump’s claim that Russia’s army is a ‘paper tiger’

I’ve already said that for all these years [of war in Ukraine], Russia has not just been fighting the Armed Forces of Ukraine but has essentially been fighting all NATO countries. 

On Westerners who immigrate to Russia

In the identity document of a subject of the Russian Empire, there was no line for “nationality.” In the Soviet passport, there was; in the Russian passport, there wasn’t. What was there instead? “Religion.” The defining value was a common religious one, belonging to the Eastern Christian faith — Orthodoxy. There were other values as well, but that was the determining one: which values do you share?

So even today, for us it doesn’t matter whether a person comes from the East, the West, the South, or the North. If they share our values, then they are one of us.

On the death of Michael Gloss, a U.S. citizen and the son of a CIA official, who joined the Russian army and died in Ukraine

I believe people like this form the core of the MAGA organization that supports President Trump. Why? Because they stand for these values, just as he does. That’s the kind of people they are — and that’s the kind of person he was. As the anthem says, the U.S.A. is the “land of the brave,” right? He was a brave person, truly proving it through his actions and his life. Both his family and his country — those who share his views — can certainly be proud of him. Here he was, an American, but he was a Russian soldier.