Today is a significant date in the recent political history. Exactly 10 years ago, Vladimir Putin made a speech at the security conference in Germany. Later, it was called the "Munich Speech" in a vein similar to Churchill's Fulton Speech, which marked the beginning of the Cold War. But in Munich, Putin suggested a model of a world without wars. In fact, it was the first experience of a frank conversation with the West in decades.

The speech lasted for 1 hour and 14 minutes, and caused an unprecedented response. Today, that speech is on the list of the most important dates on the pages of European newspapers. That day, Vladimir Putin, — writes Sueddeutsche Zeitung, accused his US counterpart George W. Bush of the fact that America had made the world more dangerous, and plans to create a missile defense system had triggered an arms race.

Putin spoke about the mistakes of the world order after the Cold War, about imposing stereotypes of bloc thinking, and the danger of unilateralism, which lead to chaos. "Today we are witnessing an almost unconfined and exaggerated use of force in international affairs, military force, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of successive conflicts. As a result, we do not have enough strength to completely resolve any of them. It becomes impossible to find a political solution. We see an increasing disdain for the basic principles of international law".

The Russian president said these words four years prior to the beginning of the Arab Spring, that is, before the events in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. In fact, none of the internal political conflicts developed without an external and, more often, military intervention. Countries were destroyed not by civil wars, but by subsequent interventions and jihadists, who immediately were attracted to places where there was no order left.



The Middle East has become a source of a new global threat — international terrorism. Millions of refugees have changed the appearance and lifestyle of Old Europe. With the victory of Donald Trump in the White House, for the first time there is hope for a change from the strategy of overthrowing regimes in order to build democracies. But the new policy of the President is already encountering fierce resistance from the American elites, just as it happened once with Obama's intentions to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and to withdraw troops from Iraq. The world has become even more fragile.

Putin: "No one feels safe because no one is protected anymore by international law, as if it were a wall of stone. Such a policy is, of course, a catalyst for the arms race. The figures speak for themselves".

Over the past 10 years, the US military budget has increased by 80 billion dollars and now amounts 607 billion. Military expenditures of NATO member countries are another 918 billion dollars which in the near future, according to Secretary General Stoltenberg, will grow by another 100.

Russia has also increased its own military spending as NATO battalions are presently being transferred to stem the threat from the east. However, the reason for this is not to be drawn into an arms race. The goal is to raise the share of modern weapons in the army to 70% and up to 100% in the missile divisions over 10 years via comprehensive modernization.

Putin: "I think it is obvious that the process of NATO expansion has nothing to do with the modernization of the Alliance itself or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it is a serious factor of provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask openly: Against whom are they expanding?"

Before Putin's Munich speech, NATO expanded twice, in 1999 and 2004, adding in a dozen Eastern European countries from Hungary to Estonia as members. But after Munich, the enlargement of the Alliance didn't stop. In 2009, Albania and Croatia joined the ranks; and negotiations with Montenegro are almost completed. An Action Plan was approved for Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Provocative alliance activity in Georgia and Ukraine in many ways became a catalyst of the Russian-Georgian conflict in August 2008, and of the current Ukrainian crisis.

Baltic countries host troop command and control posts, and heavy weapons. Intensity of the military exercises of the alliance has almost doubled in 10 years. It is obvious against whom the maneuvers of the allies are aimed. The British, for example, use tanks and military uniforms, similar to Russian ones, to mark the enemy. During the ten years that have passed since Putin's speech in Munich, the Russian president has been quoted, which confirms the relevance of his words. During the same decade, Russia has managed to regain its place among the leaders of the world politics and to convince its partners to respect Moscow's position