The back-to-back international summits of the G20 in Rome and COP26 in Glasgow at the end of October brought together hosts of dignitaries and hordes of activists, but one global leader was conspicuously absent—Russian President Vladimir Putin. One week prior, at the annual gathering of the Valdai Club (October 18–21), he not only decried the ostensible crisis of Western capitalism but also dismissed the search for global solutions to global problems as unrealistic (Kremlin.ru, October 21; see EDM, October 25). His recipe for addressing the challenges of global disorder is based on strengthening the centrality of the state, an old idea that potentially would have been more convincing coming from Putin were the Russian state successful in countering the double disasters of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic at home. However it has not been (see EDM, May 26, July 6, September 30, October 28); and this abject failure gives new energy to the cause of strengthening the unity and leadership of democratic states, as championed by United States President Joseph Biden.
Spurning Pair of International Summits, Putin Denounces Globalization – Jamestown
