Much of what Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Valdai Club, a much awaited annual feature at the Moscow think tank, was along predictable lines. He railed at the West of creating its own rules and trying to impose them on others. He lashed out at the American desire for a unipolar world, and said he was not for unipolarity or even a bipolar world, but a multipolar world in which all would be respected. He alleged that the West was “seeking some kind of nuclear incident” and trying to create a false flag incident with a “dirty bomb” to pin against Russia, and thus to escalate the war. But between the lines, there was also an intriguing outreach to Western Europe — particularly Germany, whose relations with Russia in the post Cold War phase were built on the belief that Moscow could never be isolated in any plan for peace and security in Europe. Putin’s appeal to Europe sought to differentiate between the “the genuine traditional West” as opposed to the American-led West in which “even allies are sanctioned” and they “lower their heads and agree to everything”. He asked Europe to “rediscover/restore its political and economic independence” as this was the only way to a multipolar world.
Putin’s effusive praise for India and its political leadership, in response to a question after his main speech, may have embarrassed Delhi as it tries to walk the tightrope and stay neutral in this war. In another era, Putin’s description of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “independent” foreign policy, and of India under his watch as an “icebreaker” “moving calmly” towards its chosen destiny would have been received with more enthusiasm in Delhi. But days after high praise for Modi in the West for telling Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that “this is not the time for war”, the Russian president’s remarks sought to throw a very different light on Indian “neutrality”. Understandably, Delhi was lukewarm. Despite India’s abstentions at the United Nations on resolutions to do with Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the Indian establishment’s patience with Putin’s actions has been wearing thin. In the phone call between the two foreign ministers, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh rightly told his counterpart Sergei Shoigu that the use of nuclear weapons “should not be resorted to by either side” as these weapons go “against the basic tenets of humanity”.
It is unfortunate that neither side in this war, which continues to cause real economic consequences across the world, is making efforts to pursue a diplomatic end to this outrageous conflict. Instead, on both sides, the rhetoric is all about escalation.
