💢 Vladimir Putin used his Valdai address to reach back to Egon Bahr, the German Social Democrat and architect of Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, arguing that Bahr had effectively warned in 1990 where Europe was heading.

Putin cited Bahr’s concern that influential NATO circles opposed replacing bloc confrontation with pan-European cooperation. Bahr had instead proposed a powerful security council encompassing the US, USSR and much of Eastern and Central Europe. Putin said the opposite course prevailed after the Soviet collapse: NATO expanded and Russia was increasingly isolated rather than incorporated into a common European security system.

Putin said Russia has no aggressive intentions toward Europe, but warned there should be no illusions about what would happen if Russian territory were directly attacked. In the case of Kaliningrad or elsewhere, he said the question of using the full range of weapons available to Russia would “inevitably and immediately” be placed on the agenda.

On Ukraine, Putin again presented the war through Moscow’s security framework: he argued that the West sought to turn Ukraine into a strategic instrument against Russia and said the current confrontation could not be resolved without taking Russian security interests into account. He warned that the wider Russia-NATO confrontation had entered an increasingly dangerous escalation dynamic.

Weltwoche publisher Roger Köppel, who attended the session, said Putin regretted never having personally met Bahr. Köppel then recounted his own meetings with the late German politician, whose central argument was that lasting European peace could not be built against Russia.

Köppel also questioned Putin over the temporary administration imposed on Nestlé’s Russian assets. Putin rejected the description of the measure as expropriation or nationalization, calling it a reciprocal response to measures taken against Russia and Russian property in the West. He said affected Western companies could regain control of their assets if relations eventually normalize.

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