Putin Defends Security Council Veto, Assails Western Liberalism
- Abolition of veto power would be end of UN, president says
- Putin speaks at annual Valdai Club meeting in Russia’s Sochi
Vladimir Putin speaks in Sochi, Russia, on Oct. 21.
Photographer: Dmitry Feoktistov/TASS/Getty Images
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said abolishing the veto power of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council would mean the end of the world body, as he railed against Western liberal values and extolled “moderate conservatism.”
Energy markets are an example of a capitalist model that has exhausted itself amid widening divisions between the rich and poor, Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Club discussion group in Sochi on Thursday. Russia was striving, like many northern European countries, to build a social state that met citizens needs, he said.