Russia’s Putin Expects Major Shift In Global Politics Within Next Decade

(RIA Novosti – Dec. 10, 2012) Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks that Russia must find its place in the geopolitical transformation (of the world), but not on conditions of confrontation.

“In this geopolitical transformation, we must find our place. Can we do it? Of course we can, with our vast territory, with our traditions, with our growing economy. But, without a doubt, we must do this using modern methods, not on conditions of confrontation but on conditions of promoting and defending our own national interests, but of course by correlating them with and taking into consideration the interests of our partners,” Putin said during a meeting with his authorized representatives.

He noted that Russia was often described in cliches. “We have not yet fully abandoned the communist past, our democracy is not quite what it should be and our elections are not right, (our) legitimacy is questioned all the time, and if we are not legitimate, then what right do we have to say something about foreign policy? How can someone without residential registration say anything about Tchaikovsky’s music?” Putin said, adding that that was (often) the logic. At the same time, he stressed that all this was receding into the past.

The whole world is living in times of change, because the global economy is being restructured and new economic leaders are emerging, first of all the BRICS countries, Putin noted.

“The Asia-Pacific region is growing at such a pace that there is good reason to believe that there will be a new leader in the global economy within the next decade, and this will inevitably lead to a redistribution of countries’ weights in global politics,” Putin noted.

According to him, the question is how this will happen, and whether this will be a hard or soft landing for today’s leaders, and what will happen next.