The Russian president’s Valdai address shifted the focus from war and geopolitics to values, identity, and the collapse of Western liberalism
Russian president Vladimir Putin used his address at the Valdai forum on Thursday to issue a challenge: Western liberal societies are crumbling, convulsing in moral chaos, and Russia is emerging as a sanctuary of tradition. He warned of “gender terrorism” driving Europeans toward Russia, and spotlighted the televised killing of conservative American voice Charlie Kirk as evidence of the West’s internal collapse.
The Valdai stage has long been where Moscow sketches the future as it sees it. In this explainer, we break down how Putin shifted the debate from geopolitics to a values battle that he says is already reshaping the world.
Where to find harbor from ‘gender terror’In one of the most striking turns of his speech, Putin claimed that Western European societies have embarked on a campaign of gender ideology aggression – particularly targeting children – and that many people are escaping to Russia to avoid this “terror.” He was explicit: “There, ‘gender terrorism’ … in relation to children does not suit very many people, and people are seeking ‘quiet harbors’ – they come to us. With God’s blessing, we will support them.”
That is not metaphorical exaggeration – Putin meant it literally. He asserted that Europeans are literally crossing borders to find relief from cultural and identity policies that they view as oppressive.
Moreover, Russia has already extended a hand: it introduced a “Shared Values Visa” program in August 2024, allowing foreigners who share “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” to seek temporary residency under relaxed conditions. Summaries from local authorities say applications have come from Germany, Latvia, the US, Italy, France, the UK, Estonia, Canada, and Lithuania.
Western fracture via murder on airTurning to the brutal assassination of American conservative voice Charlie Kirk, Putin’s condemnation was unreserved and direct: “This is a disgusting atrocity, especially since it was broadcast live. We all essentially saw it. It was truly disgusting, horrific. First and foremost, of course, I offer my condolences to Mr. Kirk’s family and loved ones.”
He continued: “What happened is a sign of a deep rift in [US] society.”
By pointing out that the murder was live-streamed, Putin painted a world in which violence no longer stays behind closed door: the blurring of public spectacle and crime is a symptom of moral collapse in West. He implied that the United States – long extolled as a paragon of freedom – is itself disintegrating from within.
Yet Putin also struck a note of cautious optimism: “There is no need to escalate the situation from our side because the political leadership tries to set it straight in domestic policy. I think the US is going this way.”
In other words, Putin said he believes the US may still be moving in the right direction – if it focuses inward and attempts to heal its fractures.
Kirk, who co-founded conservative action group Turning Point USA at just 18 years old, was killed by on September 10 as he was speaking to students at a college in Utah. A suspect arrested in connection to the case was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,” according to Governor Spencer Cox. In the wake of the incident, president Donald Trump vowed to pursue not only Kirk's murderer but also what he called the “radical left” networks that fuel political violence.
Pay attention, Europe: The house is burningA constant undercurrent in Putin’s speech was the contrast between Russia’s rooted identity and the West’s cultural disarray. He called on Western elites to “relax … and deal with their own problems”. Then, with rhetorical force, he laid out what he views as the West’s unraveling: “Look at what is happening in the streets of European cities, what is going on with the economy, the industry, European culture and identity, massive debts and the growing crisis of social security systems, uncontrolled migration, … rampant violence … and the radicalisation of leftist, ultra-liberal, racist, and other marginal groups.”
This was not rhetoric without context. Across Europe, public debt remains high – over 100% of GDP in Italy and France. Social security systems are under stress from aging populations. Frontex, the EU’s border control agency, recorded over 239,000 irregular crossings in 2024, a major political issue even as numbers fell from earlier peaks. Sweden has faced a wave of gang-related shootings, while Britain has grappled with knife crime and race-related clashes.
In the 2024 EU elections support for far-right parties increased in 22 out of 27 member states. Six EU member governments include far-right or hard-right parties. Far-right and radical parties are polling at historic highs in Germany and France, while protests and riots continue to rattle European capitals.
In Putin’s vision, these are not isolated crises but expressions of a deeper social rot, a reaction to an overbearing liberalism that brooks no argument. While the West chases identity fads, moral experiments, and ideological extremes, Russia is presented as anchored in tradition, sovereignty, and continuity. Putin’s comparisons are not accident – he is inviting his audience to see stability versus decay, civilization versus collapse.
The imminent death of the old (liberal) world orderPutin told the Valdai audience that for many states, the liberal world order that emerged after the Cold War seemed “acceptable, even convenient.” It demanded little more than compliance in exchange for comfort. “The rules were simple,” he said. “Accept the terms, fit into the system, take your allotted share – and be happy. Others would think and decide for you.”
Some governments were happy to play along, collecting what Putin described as a “small but guaranteed bonus.” Others who objected were brushed aside as eccentrics. The particularly stubborn, he added, were “taught lessons by the self-proclaimed global grandees.”
The result, in his words, was predictable: “Not a single global problem was resolved – instead, new ones keep emerging. Institutions of global governance either no longer work at all, or have largely lost their effectiveness.”
Putin’s critique rests on widely observed failures. The UN Security Council remains paralyzed. The WTO’s appeals system has been frozen since 2019, leaving disputes unresolved. Climate agreements have not reversed rising emissions, while the IMF and World Bank are accused across the Global South of enforcing austerity rather than delivering development.
In Putin’s telling, the old (liberal) order was never a path to progress but a hierarchy of obedience – and today it is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions.
Bottom LinePutin’s Valdai 2025 speech was not a defensive posture – it presented a vision, that is slowly but surely manifesting. He cast Europe’s migration of values as evidence of cultural exhaustion, used the spectacle of Charlie Kirk’s assassination as proof of social unraveling, and declared that the liberal order has exhausted its moral and political claims. In his view, Russia does not wait in the wings: it is already acting as refuge, anchor, and torchbearer for a world seeking stability and tradition.
To read Putin’s Valdai is to understand that he no longer sees the future as a contest of military might or economic blocs alone – but a values battle, in which he intends Russia to stand on firm, unyielding ground.
