Putin announced Russia’s struggle for the right to be itself. What else did the president say about the country’s self-determination?

Russian President Vladimir Putin recorded a video message dedicated to the opening of the Academy of Creative Industries in the Tavrida art cluster. The transcript was published on the official website of the Kremlin.

Self-determination time

Putin said that Russia has great respect for the heritage of world culture. According to him, it is impossible to imagine that the country would try to “cancel” it. But now it is “time for self-determination” for Russia, he said.

The President noted that the desire for self-determination is manifested in Russian culture, creative search and thought. He called for a careful, respectful attitude to one’s roots and origins, as well as to preserve in their own forms and genres “the unique sound that has always distinguished Russian culture”, a special value message that testifies to the most important spiritual and moral foundations.

Cancellation culture

Putin also spoke about Western attempts to abolish Russian culture and stressed that in this way the states punish themselves. In his opinion, countries, culture and art should unite people. The sphere of culture found itself at the epicenter of geopolitical confrontation.

Earlier, the president reported that a “cancellation culture” is flourishing in the West, ostracism is thriving, and facts that do not fit into their templates are hushed up. He also stated that there is no place in Russia for ethnic intolerance.

Multipolar world

On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a new concept of the country’s foreign policy by decree. In it, the authorities expressed the hope that the West would accept the senselessness of confrontation with Moscow, and also return to cooperation, based on the principles of sovereign equality and respect for interests.

The document also notes that Russia “has self-determined as an original country-civilization, a vast Eurasian and Euro-Pacific power, a stronghold of the Russian world, one of the sovereign centers of world development.”