02.10.2026, Moscow.
After NATO’s military aggression against Yugoslavia, the West shifted to speaking from a position of force, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 1 at the plenary session of the 23rd annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.
According to the leader of state, the world order that emerged after World War II was maintained by a balance of power between the victorious countries; however, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this balance was destroyed. Western countries, Putin notes, decided that they were no longer obliged to comply with the rules they had signed together with the USSR and began tailoring them to themselves in order to pursue their interests on the international stage.
This process, the Russian leader noted, proceeded step by step, and he remembers well how Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, tried to reach an agreement over Yugoslavia, called for taking into account the aspirations of the peoples living there, and for resolving problems peacefully. “Excuse me for saying this, but they didn’t listen a damn bit, they did as they pleased. By force,” Putin said.
“And everything, every subsequent step, was a form of coercive pressure, military or economic or financial. This is all a conversation from a position of force. And we lived with it,” the president continued. He explained that the processes of disintegration across the territory of the USSR immediately affected the new Russia, which had to restore and strengthen its statehood, economy, and armed forces.
During that period, according to the leader of state, Moscow had no time to negotiate with the leading global players about the rules of conduct on the international stage, because it had to think about how to strengthen itself. “That’s how everything gradually deteriorated,” Putin concluded.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
