Russian President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to the 8th Primakov Readings International Scientific and Expert Forum, held in Russia Dec. 6-7. He said that “The ideas of Yevgeny Primakov, an outstanding statesman and thinker, regarding the future world order based on a profound analysis of objective processes and a scientific forecast, have now become more popular than ever before,” and that “the current forum’s theme, ‘World Order in Transit: Eurasian Dimension,’ is highly topical. It is Eurasia that is the main driving force of global economic development. This is where integration processes are picking up momentum, and effective mechanisms of multilateral cooperation that play a key role in asserting a multipolar world order system, based on genuine equality, mutual respect and consideration for the legitimate interests of each other, evolve.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also spoke, and called on the EU to show some independence from the U.S., whose interests are not the same as those of Europe. “Of course, we would like the EU to be one of the poles of the new multipolar world, it still has all the opportunities for it.… The European Union will be able to participate equally in these processes when it realizes that it does not have to say ‘I agree’ to the United States 100% of the time,” he said.
