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Putin Left Door Open to West - British Scholar

© Sputnik / Kristina Kormilitsyna / Go to the mediabankRussian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the plenary session of the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, in Sochi, Krasnodar region, Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the plenary session of the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, in Sochi, Krasnodar region, Russia. - Sputnik International, 1920, 08.11.2024
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Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the plenary session of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club on Thursday.
While criticizing Western leaders for failing to serve the interests of their people, Vladimir Putin also sent a positive signal for the future, Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at University College Cork, Ireland, told Sputnik.
"Very clearly, he [Putin] is signaling continued resistance to Western hegemony, Western dominance. He also makes his point, time and again, that European political leaders aren't serving their country's best interests […] by the policy that they're pursuing in terms of global politics," he noted.

However, at the same time, the Russian president "made it clear that Russia is not going to run after the West to restore relations, but the door is open if that's the choice that the West wants to make," the leading British scholar on Soviet diplomatic and military history underscored.

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It's not clear whether US President-elect Donald Trump will pursue friendly relations with Russia, but the chances are much higher now, Roberts speculated.

"[Vladimir Putin] said that if Trump wants to improve relations, he is open to it," Roberts said after attending Putin's speech and a Q&A session at the Valdai Club.

"It would be a while before we know what's going to happen. I think a big factor will be who he [Trump] appoints to key positions in foreign policy and national security… I also think Trump will be very reluctant to increase the American commitment to NATO in any way and to see further expansion of NATO […] in Europe or elsewhere. But as I say, that's a matter for speculation,” the emeritus professor noted.
According to the academic, Putin was “very relaxed, very confident" throughout his appearance at the event, and “performed brilliantly in terms of being on top of his brief, having all these facts and figures at his fingertip, being very articulate, being very clear, answering questions directly.

"He's responding on the spot to comments, statements, questions that the people at the meeting, the members of the Valdai Club, are making. I can't think of any other political leader in the world who could perform in that kind of way," Roberts remarked.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the plenary session of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club - Sputnik International, 1920, 07.11.2024
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