Russian President Vladimir Putin was right in his words and warnings in a 2007 Munich speech. This was stated to RIA Novosti by the former Foreign Minister of Austria Karin Kneissl.

“At that time, they were talking about a new cold war that would begin soon, before the start of the war in Georgia, so the speech was actually in an intermediate phase. Some things may be better judged 15 years later, and I came to the conclusion that President Putin was very right in his words and in his warnings then,” the diplomat said.

According to her, since then the situation in the world has escalated, and the current diplomatic meetings and correspondence are the result of an activity that has been absent over the past 15 years. First of all, from the Western states.

“When I watched this talk again a few days ago, I thought it clarified a lot. You immediately feel how much personal it is, how much reflection, ”Kneissl said.

As Le Monde columnist Sylvie Kaufmann wrote earlier, the Russian president outlined his grievances against NATO and the United States at the Munich Conference, but Washington has been “looking the other way” for many years, making China one of its top security priorities.

Later, journalist Ted Carpenter also recalled that Putin's speech was supposed to "dispel all doubts" about whether the Russian Federation considers the policy of the North Atlantic alliance in general and the bloc's "inexorable march" to the east, in particular, "provocative and threatening."

He noted that at the Russian leader urged his Western counterparts to change course, but they called the tone of his speech "militant" and not conducive to cordial relations between East and West. However, NATO member states themselves have done enough to inflame the situation, Carpenter said.

Fifteen years after the Munich Conference, Russia submitted to the United States and NATO draft treaties on security guarantees, which they refused to sign.

bbabo.Net