1) Russian-American relations are going to be bad for a good long spell. Regardless of the nationality or ideological predisposition of the participant, everyone attending Valdai thought this to be true. ...
2) Russia’s grand strategy is for Russia to be treated like a great power. That’s it. A lot of high-ranking Russian officials came to chat, and the questions from the participants were quite good. But one exchange stood out. A non-American noted that Russia’s pre-2008 rhetoric toward the U.S. was, essentially, “We disapprove of your revisionist actions in the world but will not take similar actions because we believe in Westphalian sovereignty.” The post-2008 rhetoric has been, essentially, “We get to do what you’ve done in the past.” ...
3) Russia’s economy is not in great shape. Nothing was said at Valdai that contradicted
Arkady Ostrovsky’s acute diagnosis of Russia’s political economy in the Economist from last week. Indeed, some officials confirmed the economic policy problems that were discussed in that survey. Sanctions and low energy prices have hurt the Russian economy. ...
4) Vladimir Putin is, like, super-passive-aggressive. Props to the Russian leader — he took questions from the participants for
more than two hours, and seemed perfectly at ease doing so. But when the conversation turned to sensitive flash points, he got very snarky. ...
Those are his words, but the transcript does not do justice to Putin’s tone. Rhetorically,
Putin kept nominally declaring that he didn’t care who won the U.S. election, all the while venting his spleen about Hillary Clinton*. And it’s interesting that Putin’s line about this so perfectly parallels Donald Trump’s line.
Facebook
Twitter