​​Valdai's Strange “New World”   The Valdai event has come and gone again, another speech by the Russian leader has reached the masses. If we abstract from the semantic content of Putin's address, it was generally in line with the style and spirit of his previous speeches, claiming the pompous role of a pointer for the crowd of intellectuals. So to speak, it outlined the topics that would have to be worked on in the short term, with the accents already set. Whether  the wishlist will be realized in practice is the most interesting and only intriguing moment of Putin’s Valdai speech.   During the plenary session, Putin spoke on a rather disjointed platform, which includes a mixture of global, universal challenges and, so to speak, narrowly domestic issues.   But in describing the, he was vague and blurry, which allows the speaker to be relieved from the burden of responsibility.   The central message of the Valdai speech is that the moment of truth for the global order is coming.  The old world is irrevocably passing away, but there is no new model worked out yet. The global system is in the chaos of an irreconcilable struggle. In this fight, a certain global minority is designated, against the dominance of which the majority of the planet's population is fighting. Nothing new here: Putin might have taken a sneak peek of the Bolshevik-era guidebooks of some 100 years ago and immediately aimed at scaling up their teachings, smartly avoiding the topic of Russia itself. That’s actually a rather interesting move: instead of fighting for the democratization of the Russian political system, formation of a fair system within the Russian Federation, he calls on the people to focus their energy on saving the world from the shackles of a minority - anywhere,  just as farther away from Russia as possible.   Still, just imagine how harmoniously such phenomena as “openness, diversity, representativeness, security, justice, sovereign equality” would look within the Russian Federation itself. It would simply be an ideal state. However, instead of openness – it's erecting walls; instead of diversity – it's the malignant dictatorship of Kadyrov’s minions; instead of representativeness – it's the monopolistic rule of the United Russia party; instead of security – it's  a long bloody war that has seeped deep into the Russia; instead of justice – it's sending hundreds of thousands of losers to the front. While there is still a lot of work to do within the country, the Kremlin is eager to change the world, because it is much safer than trying to change themselves.   In addition to the task of a global reshuffle, Putin is concerned with a much more self-centered problem: legalization of the outcome of his inhuman, predatory slaughter in Ukraine. Everything he says to a wider audience is in complete contradiction with his Ukraine rhetoric.  There is a clear incompatibility of tasks in this case because it is unlikely that the new chief of the White House wants to be the gravedigger of America’s special role in the world, and he clearly has claims to China, which has been craving of undermining American leadership.   There is no longer any faith in Putin's other messages. In Moscow, the border issue is linked to the need for Ukraine to accept the status of a neutral state. If we proceed from this logic, after Finland has joined NATO, it must declare war and annul the Russian-Finnish border line.   The idea of the legality of the "self-determination" of Donbas and Novorossiya in accordance with the UN Charter looks dangerous and subversive for Russia itself.  Secondly, it now turns out that "referendums" can be held in any Russian territory. This is a Pandora's box that works not only toward the "enlargement" of Russian territory, but also in the opposite direction. Also, the message about "sovereign decisions of people" in connection with the dynamics of the latest developments crosses out everything said above. After all, Putin imposes on everyone a simple dictate of the law of force. That’s what Valdai’s strange new world is all about.