🎙 Remarks by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the 23rd annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club (Moscow, October 1, 2026) This year’s theme is “Responsibility for the Future: Limits of the Possible, or Limitless Possibilities?” Key talking points: • Responsibility for our shared future is far more than just an abstract slogan. It entails a set of practical measures aimed at preventing humanity from being pushed to the brink of survival and averting irreparable consequences. • Humanity has not yet fully comprehended the true magnitude of the challenge it faces. We are entering a completely new and unprecedented reality. Threats and dangers are inextricably intertwined with opportunities and prospects; they cannot be separated from one another. Our entire way of living is changing. • Whatever scenario unfolds in the world in the years ahead, the international conflicts, unfortunately, are likely to continue. This is due in part to the fact that the profound shifts now under way, and the opportunities they create, fuel and encourage ambitions and a willingness to take risks for what may appear to be a major payoff. • In the long term, as the world moves away from Western hegemony, the international situation will gradually improve leading to a more stable, democratic, and free multipolar international order. It is equally clear, however, that on the path towards such a world order, states, communities and every individual will face various risks. • The UN, even if it is the most representative international organisation, falls short of the collective and democratic principles in the way it is being managed compared to its original design. A narrow grouping of Western countries wields an unproportionally large influence. It constitutes a global minority by all accounts while seeking to appropriate administrative functions. • The principle of "might makes right" sometimes seems to guide certain international players who are convinced of their own military-political, economic, and, as they believe, moral exceptionalism. We know well from history that this never leads to anything good. • The truth is that it was not we who wanted or started the war — it was started against us. There was no need to encourage aggressive nationalism and Russophobia in Ukraine for years in order to turn it into a tool for fighting Russia. • Russia was deliberately placed in a situation where it was simply forced — in response to this obvious aggression — to defend itself with arms in hand. We were deliberately brought to this line. And in general, there is no need to turn Russophobia, the oppression and killing of Russian people, and the destruction of Russia into a state ideology and to set the goal of Russia's strategic defeat. • If we want to live — everyone wants to live — then, as I once said in a public speech, let us live in friendship and together seek ways to make that happen. Read in full