00:00As Franklin Roosevelt said in the first days of the Second World War,
00:07no matter where the world is broken, the world is safe and under threat everywhere.
00:14These words continue to be relevant today.
00:17This is evidenced by the topic of our conference, which is written here –
00:23global crises, global responsibility.
00:26I am convinced that we have come to a critical moment,
00:29when we must seriously consider the whole architecture of global security.
00:35Do we have to look involuntarily at various internal conflicts in certain countries,
00:41at the actions of authoritarian regimes, tyrants,
00:45at the spread of weapons of mass destruction?
00:48Of course, this is a serious issue.
00:50Can we look involuntarily at what is happening?
00:57I will try to answer your question as well.
01:00Of course, we should not look involuntarily.
01:02Of course, we should not.
01:04But do we have the means to resist this threat?
01:08Of course, we do.
01:10It is enough to recall a recent story.
01:14After all, there was a peaceful transition to democracy in our country.
01:18After all, there was a peaceful transformation of the Soviet regime.
01:23A peaceful transformation.
01:25And what regime?
01:27With what number of weapons, including nuclear weapons?
01:31Why now, in every convenient case, do we need to bomb and shoot?
01:37Is it really that in the absence of the threat of mutual destruction,
01:41we lack political culture, respect for the values of democracy and the rule of law?
01:46The potential danger of destabilizing international relations
01:49is associated with an obvious stagnation in the field of disarmament.
01:53Russia is in favor of resuming dialogue on this most important issue.
01:58It is important to maintain the stability of the international legal disarmament base,
02:06while ensuring the continuity of the process of reducing nuclear weapons.
02:12I cannot but mention the crisis state of the agreement on the usual armed forces in Europe.
02:18NATO countries have openly stated that they will not ratify the agreement,
02:22including the position on the flanking restrictions,
02:26on the deployment of a certain number of armed forces on the flanks,
02:30until Russia withdraws its bases from Georgia and Moldova.
02:34Our troops are withdrawing from Georgia, and even in an accelerated order.
02:38We and our Georgian colleagues have solved these problems, and everyone knows that.
02:43In Moldova, there is a group of 1,500 servicemen
02:47who perform peacekeeping functions and guard warehouses with ammunition
02:52that have remained since the USSR.
02:55But what is happening at the same time?
02:58At the same time, in Bulgaria and Romania,
03:01the so-called light American advance bases of 5,000 bayonets each are appearing.
03:11It turns out that NATO is pushing its advance forces to our state borders,
03:17and we, strictly fulfilling the agreement, do not react to these actions in any way.
03:22I think it is obvious that the process of NATO expansion has nothing to do
03:27with the modernization of the Alliance itself or with ensuring security in Europe.
03:32On the contrary, this is a seriously provoking factor that reduces the level of mutual trust.
03:38And we have a fair right to ask frankly against whom this expansion is.
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