Russia in Today's World.

For the last 15 years, Russia has been organizing the meetings of the Valdai International Discussion Club the platform for sharing ideas for the world's leading politicians, experts and journalists. This year's event, which took place just recently in October in the beautiful city of Sochi, attracted more than sixty speakers from around twenty countries. Among them was the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, who shared his views on Russian approaches to international and regional challenges and threats.

One of main issues, addressed by the Russian President, has been terrorism, which he described as 'one of the most serious evils of today's world'. He added that 'the only way to effectively stand up to it is to join efforts and establish cooperation on the basis of international law and the UN resolutions. As far as the Russian role in this process is concerned, it is ready to collaborate with all like-minded countries and relevant international and regional organizations'.

Vladimir Putin focused on Syria, highlighting a significant role of the Russian Federation in stabilizing the situation in that Middle East country, which bleeds from the scourge of terrorism and extremism. 'We did a lot of damage to terrorists in Syria. Many of them were eliminated, and some of them, thank God, decided they wanted out: they laid down their arms after losing faith in the principles they considered right', said Mr. Putin. 'We have preserved Syrian statehood and in this sense helped stabilize the region. We have liberated almost 95 percent of the entire territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. Therefore, I believe we have generally achieved the goals we had set for ourselves in starting the operation in Syria', added the Russian President. 'The next step is a political settlement at the UN in Geneva. We need to form a constitutional committee now. Progress is not easy, but we are still moving forward. I hope that we will move ahead with our partners in this area'.

Talking about the situation in the Middle Eastin general, Putin highlighted that the key underlying factor of all problems in this region is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The President underscored, that 'every effort must be made to resolve it, to establish direct contacts between the Israelis and the Palestinians, to resume multilateral efforts to resolve the decades-long crisis'. He reminded that military interference of one country leading to regime change in another...

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