'Futility of Unipolarity': Putin 2007 Munich Speech's Message Was Not Heard, Kremlin Spokesman Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - After the Munich speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin, there was a chance that Western countries would understand the futility of a unipolar world, but they did not listen, which led the world to a dangerous point, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"I disagree that it was then that the Cold War began. No. Even then there was a chance that some countries would understand the futility of the unipolar model of the existence of the world. Moreover, the futility not from the viewpoint that someone would somehow counteract this, but from the viewpoint that this single pole itself was no longer able to ensure security, and that many new poles with no less wide, no less powerful potential were simply appearing," Peskov said.

However, that message was not heard, he said.

"And, probably, the way the situation has developed over the past few years has led us to the very dangerous point where we are now," Peskov added.

The Munich speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007 was revolutionary in terms of the directness of the presentation of pressing problems, although no one imagined that by 2022 the world would slide back into the rhetoric of the Cold War, Peskov added.

"Indeed, then in 2007 this speech was quite revolutionary in terms of the directness of the presentation of pressing problems and in terms of logically very coherent and concentrated presentation of the worldview of the Russian side on the problems of the modern security architecture and on these problems, these challenges that we all are to feel to a larger extent, and that we are to face in the near future and in the medium term," Peskov said.

He noted that Putin had allowed himself to speak without excessive courtesy and without being distracted by diplomatic convention.

"Then, of course, we could not imagine that in 2022, or to be exact, it began a couple of years earlier, we, in fact, would slide back into the vocabulary of the Cold War in rhetoric," the spokesman added.

Peskov noted that nations have been currently talking about tensions, separation of forces and upcoming aggression, but in 2007 it was hard to imagine.

"But, probably, what is happening now once again underlines the rightness of President Putin. Putin spoke about disarmament issues, and, indeed, the problem of short-range and medium-range missiles is what we are living with now and what has yet to be solved by the current and, probably, the future generation of diplomats," Peskov noted.

The spokesman also stressed that even then Putin had said that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe had turned into an instrument used by certain states to divide the European countries into the elite and those who need to be subjected to democratization.

"This is what probably constitutes the essence of the problems we are facing now. Therefore, in this regard, I would not say that it was a foreign policy prophecy, but it really was such a very broad vision of the future of the situation in which we were then, and which is being confirmed now," Peskov concluded.

10 February marked 15 years since Putin delivered his famous speech at the Munich security conference, in which he harshly criticized US foreign policy and the idea of ​​a unipolar world order, spoke out against NATO expansion and deployment of US missile defence systems in Eastern Europe.