One of the main problems of modern international relations is the principle link of the behavior of the West as a whole on the will of the United States alone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in the program ‘World Order’ on the channel ‘Russia 1’.
‘We do not expect from our partners in Europe that they abandon their Euro-Atlantic orientation. But I think it would be correct to our partners in Europe to abandon it, after all, to take part at least in the decision-making. Instead of making a salute whenever the necessary instructions are coming from somewhere over the ocean,‘’ the head of the Russian state reproached Europe, recalling that the authorities should be guided by the interests of the state or domestic political interests.
"I think that the interests of the European countries, maybe I'm wrong, let them tell me another thing then, are to join forces in economics, in politics and in the fight against terrorism, and in the struggle for a solution to environmental problems and organized crime," Putin said, noting that Europe is not maintaining an independent foreign policy today, instead transferring some of its sovereignty not as much to NATO as to the United States itself.
As an example of this state of affairs, the US president led troops into Iraq, against which Germany and France protested at the time. "It turned out that the same Jacques Chirac, who had a very close and trusting relationship with the Sunni part of the Middle East, had already anticipated where it would lead. This led to the destruction of the state in these countries, terrorism thrives, there are attacks in Paris, Chirac then thought about it – and he was right. Just like Gerhard Schroeder," he noted.
In addition to transferring sovereignty to a single center, the West suffers from another habit of imposing its own standards of democracy on other regions. "When various operations started ... in Afghanistan or Iraq, Libya, I always took the position that we must act carefully. You cannot have your own schemes and notions of good and evil, in this case of right, democracy, shift automatically to other countries and peoples, other cultures, other religions, other traditions," he warned, adding that perhaps the Western countries "consider themselves to be great, but they have no responsibility."
However, despite the collapse of the bipolar system, the West still cannot stop acting in the old way. "The bipolar system collapsed. Our partners have to think about how to be moral leaders of the newly emerging global relations. But they continued to act and think in the old way. The cliché of the Cold War," Vladimir Putin said.
The president also warned against making stringent international decisions until they reach a consensus in the Security Council." The conditions for the use of force against countries that violate the order are possible only by unanimous decision of the members of the Security Council, and the permanent members of the Security Council have veto power. What does this mean? The fact that it is impossible to take such tough decisions about anything, if there is no complete agreement on this issue. This is the key thing in the whole system of international law," the head of the Russian state pointed out.
In general, Putin said that international law is the key to sustainable peace, and and it is reasonable to strengthen it. "We have only one prescription – the strengthening of the foundations of modern international law. There can be no double, triple interpretation as there is though about what is sovereignty. If we act, think with such similar voluntarism, unprescribed, not understandable, unclear, not transparent and out of the uniform manner of understanding categories, then there will be chaos," the president of Russia concluded.
