Vladimir Putin's speech at Valdai. Main talking points

One of the main topics raised during the meeting was the situation with the coronavirus in the country. According to the president, it should not be allowed to become like in Europe, when "patients are kept on mechanical ventilation for several days". The head of state is sure that it is necessary to expand testing for covid, and it is irresponsible to underestimate and embellish the picture of COVID-19 in the regions. Putin noted that if a greater number of cases of coronavirus are detected in a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, this does not mean that they work poorly there, on the contrary, it is a reflection of the effectiveness of work.

Vladimir Putin supported the idea of introducing non-working days from October 30 to November 7 and noted that, if necessary, such a regime could be extended after that date. In those regions where the epidemiological situation is most difficult, the lockdown can be introduced from Saturday, October 23rd.

The President called for an increase in the rate of vaccination.

As for the increase in food prices, the president indicated the need to present a set of measures to contain food prices and protect agricultural producers.

The President spoke on the topic of equality, in particular, citing Western countries as an example.

“The struggle for equality is turning into dogmatism on the verge of absurdity, Hollywood is releasing instructions on how to make a movie, what race characters are needed”, - the Russian leader noted. According to him, countering manifestations of racism is a noble cause, but in a new culture it turns into racism on the contrary.

"The recipes of values offered by the West are not new at all, we have already gone through this in Russia - and it reminds of the Marxist model of human morality", - Putin noted.

The most reasonable principle of the worldview "in the coming period of world reconstruction, the outcome of which is not yet known", Putin called moderate conservatism, noting that "wild" capitalism does not work. He called Russian conservatism the conservatism of the optimists. The president also said that Russians "value stability and the ability to develop normally without fear that their aspirations will collapse due to the actions of the revolutionaries".

Speaking about the Soviet era, the president recalled that despite the leveling principle in the USSR, there were also preferences in the form of social lifts and that he himself, like the vast majority of people in the country, faced the problems of this period, and with a positive, for example, received good education.

“My family was simple, they did not use slogans, but in everyday life they always treated their country with respect, without ostentatious patriotism”, - the head of state said.

Answering the question about foreign agents posed by the Nobel laureate, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Dmitry Muratov, Putin pointed out that "we need to look again and again at these vague criteria".

"I constantly give such instructions to the presidential administration and the State Duma deputies so that they come back, improve this tool and in no case abuse it. We will deal with this", - said the President.

The head of state was asked a number of questions about Afghanistan. According to Putin, the situation in this country is "very important for everyone, everyone wants to have a stable Afghan state on their borders". He is confident that we should continue to help Afghanistan and unfreeze Afghan assets. As for the Taliban * movement, which seized power in the country, Putin spoke about the possibility of excluding him and the terrorist lists.

* the organization is recognized as terrorist and is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation