June 15—In a speech yesterday before the senior figures of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, comprising Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and others of the ministry’s top leadership, President Vladimir Putin delivered a thoroughly composed, powerful review of global and regional affairs, focusing primarily on the historical background and “arrogant and reckless” role played by the West—the U.S. in particular—which led to Russia launching its special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine in February 2022.

The conclusion of his speech details his peace proposal for ending the war and restoring relations between Russia and Ukraine and eventually Europe, but he warns that the “self-centeredness and arrogance of Western countries have led us to a highly perilous situation today. We are inching dangerously close to a point of no return.” The “extreme recklessness” of Western leaders who call for a “strategic defeat of Russia” and its dismemberment, “either fail to comprehend the magnitude of the threat they are creating or are simply consumed by their notion of invincibility and exceptionalism. Both scenarios can result in tragedy.”

Putin comprehensively discussed a range of international issues—the need for a new global and Eurasian security architecture, how Europe has destroyed itself through its “critical and increasing dependence on the United States,” and the “tragic” results stemming from “NATO diplomacy” being imposed on nations. The U.S. insistence on its imperial status and dominance is “exhausting the country, leading to its degradation, clearly contrary to the genuine interests of the American people.” It is this “dead-end policy, driven by aggressive messianism based on the belief in their own superiority and exceptionalism,” that has kept international relations in a constant state of instability. It didn’t have to be that way, the Russian President emphasized.

The emergence of the multipolar and multilateral world order and institutions such as the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) give cause for hope, Putin said. These “system-wide changes certainly inspire optimism and hope, because the establishment of multipolarity and multilateralism in international affairs … make it possible to resolve the most complex problems together for the common benefit and to build mutually beneficial relations and cooperation between sovereign states for the sake of wellbeing and security of peoples.”