World War 3: Vladimir Putin Says The Islamic State, Not Russia’s Nuclear Weapons, Are The Real Threat

World War 3 and Russia’s nuclear weapons have become the focus of media attention in 2014, but Vladimir Putin believes it is the Islamic State, not Russia, that poses the greatest threat to world peace.

Vladimir Putin’s assassination was seriously proposed by Herbert E. Meyer, a former Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council under the Reagan administration.

The shadow of World War 3 has also caused Putin’s popularity in Russia to sink, with political opponents accusing the Russian leader of heading the “war party.” Russian chess master has also famously declared that Vladimir Putin is a greater threat than the Islamic State. But when Putin spoke at the plenary meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, he claimed that the United States has taken a system of checks and balances built before the end of the first Cold War and “took steps that threw the system into sharp and deep imbalance.”

Defending Russia’s actions, Putin believes that the United States’ interference in world affairs has thrown the world into chaos.

“A unilateral diktat and imposing one’s own models produces the opposite result. Instead of settling conflicts it leads to their escalation, instead of sovereign and stable states we see the growing spread of chaos, and instead of democracy there is support for a very dubious public ranging from open neo-fascists to Islamic radicals.”

Vladimir Putin claims the Islamic State, Taliban, and al Qaeda all have their roots in the United States sponsoring “Islamic extremist movements to fight the Soviet Union.” He also insists that Americans turned a blind eye to the growth of Islamic extremism until 9/11.

“Only after horrific terrorist attacks were committed on US soil itself did the United States wake up to the common threat of terrorism. Let me remind you that we were the first country to support the American people back then, the first to react as friends and partners to the terrible tragedy of September 11. During my conversations with American and European leaders, I always spoke of the need to fight terrorism together, as a challenge on a global scale. We cannot resign ourselves to and accept this threat, cannot cut it into separate pieces using double standards.”

    

Putin also calls into question President Obama’s actions in Iraq, Libya, and Syria by asking, “How did the notorious ISIL manage to become such a powerful group, essentially a real armed force?”
The Russian leader believes the oil financing the ISIS terrorist group is indirectly the fault of the same nations who are now afraid the Islamic State may wage World War 3 on all fronts.

“The terrorists are getting money from selling oil too. Oil is produced in territory controlled by the terrorists, who sell it at dumping prices, produce it and transport it. But someone buys this oil, resells it, and makes a profit from it, not thinking about the fact that they are thus financing terrorists who could come sooner or later to their own soil and sow destruction in their own countries…. We sometimes get the impression that our colleagues and friends are constantly fighting the consequences of their own policies, throw all their effort into addressing the risks they themselves have created, and pay an ever-greater price.”

Vladimir Putin also believes that the idea of World War 3 being caused by Russia’s nuclear weapons is just a prop for maintaining the United States’ leadership role in world affairs.

“Essentially, the unipolar world is simply a means of justifying dictatorship over people and countries. The unipolar world turned out too uncomfortable, heavy and unmanageable a burden even for the self-proclaimed leader…. This is why we see attempts at this new historic stage to recreate a semblance of a quasi-bipolar world as a convenient model for perpetuating American leadership. It does not matter who takes the place of the centre of evil in American propaganda, the USSR’s old place as the main adversary. It could be Iran, as a country seeking to acquire nuclear technology, China, as the world’s biggest economy, or Russia, as a nuclear superpower.”

   

In 2014, Russia’s nuclear weapons outnumbered the United States for the first time in years, although Putin claims he would prefer “talks to reduce nuclear arsenals. The less nuclear weapons we have in the world, the better.” The second threat to world peace is considered to be the “further escalation of ethnic, religious, and social conflicts.” In order to combat these threats, Putin calls for a “new world order” that focuses on working together internationally in a balanced manner, although he admits the world does “not even need to build anything anew” from “scratch.”

“[G]iven the global situation, it is time to start agreeing on fundamental things. This is incredibly important and necessary; this is much better than going back to our own corners. The more we all face common problems, the more we find ourselves in the same boat, so to speak. And the logical way out is in cooperation between nations, societies, in finding collective answers to increasing challenges, and in joint risk management…. In light of the fundamental changes in the international environment, the increase in uncontrollability and various threats, we need a new global consensus of responsible forces. It’s not about some local deals or a division of spheres of influence in the spirit of classic diplomacy, or somebody’s complete global domination. I think that we need a new version of interdependence.”

    

When reporters asked Putin several questions after the speech, the Russian leader claimed that Russia does “not have any claims to world leadership. The idea that Russia is seeking some sort of exclusivity is false.” He also defended Russia’s actions in Ukraine, giving his personal account of how he believed the Ukraine crisis developed after Russia helped former Ukrainian President Yanukovych escape the country.