Putin’s Valdai keynote: Russian president addresses renowned forum

Constant increased tension from European countries is linked to their own economic and political deterioriation, Putin says. Amid collapsing quality in living they have to change citizens' focus to external issues, he says.

The UN’s “ineffectiveness” began “with NATO’s attack on Yugoslavia,” he says.

“Without any decision from the Security Council, without authorization, without the UN, they unleashed a major war.”

“That is where it all started. Naturally, the whole world was watching. The logic was: if they can do it, then everyone else can too.”

The line of no return was crossed after aggressive circles in NATO took the fall of the Soviet Union as a signal to continue fragmenting Russia, rather than allowing Moscow into broader international architecture, Putin says in his Q&A session in Valdai.

“They said that NATO would not expand toward Russia, and lied, immediately began expanding… five, six waves of expansion,” he adds.

The support of separatism in South Caucasus, including the support of radical Islamists, was all aimed at further fragmenting Russia, he says.

Putin concludes his address by urging countries to set aside ambition and selfishness, tackle inequality and environmental degradation, and turn technological threats into opportunities.

He hopes future history books will describe this period as the moment humanity rejected military confrontation and began building a stable new world order. Otherwise, he warns, “there is a risk that there will be no one left to study those textbooks, and the textbooks themselves will never appear.”

“Let’s believe in the best,” he says, urging everyone to work to make that future possible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, Russia on October 01, 2026. © Getty Images / Sefa Karacan

Digitizing warfare risks turning bloodshed and deaths into “a kind of computer game,” Putin warns. AI and autonomous systems increasingly replace human decision-making, while growing cruelty and disregard for humanitarian norms make conflicts more inhumane, he says.

He calls for renewed international discussion of the rules of war, recalling Russia’s initiative behind the 1899 Hague conventions. Military professionalism includes respecting humanitarian limits, he stresses.

Putin says Russian forces have always upheld those norms and have never been the first to attack facilities not directly linked to the enemy’s military infrastructure.

Putin and moderator Fyodor Lukyanov made a reference to Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr, a German SPD politician and former journalist. He was the creator of the Ostpolitik promoted by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for whom he served as secretary of state in the German Chancellery from 1969 until 1972.

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Limits on artificial intelligence in security are “a question of humanity’s survival,” Putin says, acknowledging that technological progress cannot be stopped. However, he stresses that its consequences must be understood, particularly as algorithms increasingly make decisions in civilian and military settings.

He recalls Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov’s decision in September 1983 to question an early-warning alert reporting five incoming US missiles. Petrov correctly suspected a malfunction, Putin says, warning that AI in his place could have produced a very different outcome.

AI can make weapons more effective and conflicts more destructive, he adds, calling for an impartial international discussion on preserving humanitarian limits in warfare.

Escalation driven by arrogance and attempts to cross red lines is “a path to the edge of the abyss,” Putin says. Provocations invite retaliation, tightening a spiral of increasingly destructive responses that could become irreversible.

No one can guarantee that weapons capable of destroying all life will never be used, he says. The more openly a country pursues an opponent’s “strategic defeat,” the greater the risk of conflict entering its most severe phase, he adds, calling for genuine diplomacy that accounts for all sides’ interests.

Putin sighs deeply after recounting how German politicians in 1990 understood what was needed to ensure peaceful geopolitical realignment following the dissolution of the USSR.

He recalls German Social Democratic politician Egon Bahr’s warnings that failing to overcome Europe’s division into hostile blocs could perpetuate confrontation and isolate the Soviet Union.

Bahr proposed a powerful security council bringing together the US, USSR, and countries across Eastern and Central Europe, he says. Instead, forces opposed to European cooperation prevailed in the West after the Soviet collapse, Putin argues.

Despite Russia’s years of efforts to integrate with the West, he says Western governments sought to isolate and further dismantle it, contributing to today’s dangerous situation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, Russia on October 01, 2026. © Getty Images / Sefa Karacan

Late Soviet leaders’ “naivety” and “blind trust” in Western partners and reliance on “gentlemen’s agreements” harmed both the USSR and long-term global stability, Putin says. Soviet leaders wanted to please the West, while Western leaders sought to reshape the world in their own interests and claim Soviet assets, he argues.

He stresses that the USSR’s collapse stemmed primarily from accumulated internal imbalances and generations of leadership mistakes. Many of today’s conflicts also reflect the failure of politicians in both East and West to properly manage the upheavals of the late 20th century, he says.