Putin invited Western Europe to return to mutual love
Russia is part of the pan-European space and a natural partner for the continent's states. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this during his speech at the Davos Forum, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The Russian leader repeated his earlier words about the desire to unite Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok and emphasized that Russia is ready to resume a positive agenda with Europe. The only condition, according to Putin, is that this process be mutual.
“The largest political figures in Europe in the recent past spoke about the need to develop relations between Europe and Russia, pointing out that Russia is part of Europe. Both geographically and, most importantly, in the cultural sense of the word. In essence, this is one civilization.
French leaders spoke about the need to create a single space from Lisbon to the Urals. But I think, and I also said this - why to the Urals? To Vladivostok. I personally heard the position of the former outstanding European political figure, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who said that if European culture wants to survive and remain one of the centers of world civilization in the future, bearing in mind all the problems and trends in the development of world civilization, then, of course, Western Europe and Russia must be together. It’s hard to disagree with this; we hold exactly the same point of view and position.
The current situation is clearly not normal, we need to return to a positive agenda. This is the interest of both Russia and, I am sure, European countries... Europe and Russia in this regard, from an economic point of view, are absolutely natural partners. From the point of view of the development of science, technology, spatial development for European culture, Russia, being a country of European culture, is still slightly larger than the entire united Europe in terms of territory. The resources in Russia are colossal, the human potential is colossal... Only one thing is important here - we need to approach dialogue with each other honestly, we need to get rid of the phobias of the past, from using in internal political processes all the problems that we inherited from past centuries, and look into the future.
If we can rise above these problems of the past, get rid of these phobias, then, of course, a positive stage in our relations awaits us. We are ready for this, we want this and we will strive for this. But love is impossible when it is declared only on one side; it must be mutual,” Putin said.
Putin proposed that Western Europe return to mutual love.