Putin’s Valdai keynote: Russian president addresses renowned forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin is delivering his annual keynote to the Valdai discussion club international forum, outside Moscow.

Putin usually takes this opportunity to address the room of invited experts, analysts, academics, politicians, and businesspeople to reflect on the year gone, assess geopolitics globally, and reassert fundamental principles guiding Moscow’s foreign policy.

This year, we can expect some reflections on the emerging multipolar world, particularly in terms of strengthening ties with China and India, and the notable success of the ASEAN Summit in Kazan in June.

Putin’s speech will be followed by a Q&A session, where some of the world’s top Russia analysts and Russia-focused academics can put questions to the Russian president. Previously he has issued warnings about nuclear risks, told oligarch jokes, and “confessed” to being behind the phantom drone spectre that haunted Western Europe last year.

More seriously, Putin has used the Valdai speeches to consolidate and refine key points of Russian policy, from a warning to the West after his Munich Security Conference speech in 2007, through to a declaration of a new world order in 2014, to drawing explicit red lines in policy and conflict escalation thresholds in 2025.

Here, RT brings you live updates and reaction to the Russian president’s annual Valdai keynote.