 Russia is an important global power and so is a long-standing tradition of Russia's participation in the World Economic Forum. At this moment in history where the world has a unique and short window of opportunity to move from an age of confrontation to an age of cooperation, the ability to hear your voice, the voice of the President of the Russian Federation is essential. Even and especially in times characterized by differences, disputes and protests, constructive and honest dialogue to address our common challenges is better than isolation and polarization. Yesterday your phone exchange with President Biden and the agreement to extend the new start nuclear arms treaty in principle I think is a very promising sign in this direction. COVID-19, Mr. President, has shown our global vulnerability and interconnectivity and like any other country, Russia will certainly also be affected and your economic development and prospects for international cooperation of course is of interest to all of us. Mr. President, we are keen to hear from your perspective and from said of Russia how you see the situation developing in the third decade of the 21st century and what should be done to ensure that people everywhere find peace and prosperity. Mr. President, the world is waiting to hear from you. Mr. Schwab, dear colleagues, dear Klaus, I visited Davos many times assisting meetings starting from the 90s. Mr. Schwab just mentioned that we met each other first in back in 1992 in San Piz and when I work in San Piz I visited this for many times. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity today for me to make my statement vis-a-vis the expert community which is participating at this forum. Thanks to your efforts, Mr. Schwab. First of all, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome all world economic forum participants. I'd like to start with the following. It's rather gratifying in spite of the pandemics. It's rather gratifying to see that this year despite of the restrictions caused by the coronavirus, the forum continues its work online. It has provided an opportunity for the participants to engage in an open and free discussion and share their evaluations and forecasts. It partially makes up for the lack of direct communication between the leaders of states, global businesses and the world community that has accumulated over the past months. All of this is important now that we are when we are facing so many complex issues requiring solutions. This forum is the first for in the third decade of 21st century and the majority of its topics are dedicated to the profound changes which are taking place in our plan in the world. It is indeed hard to ignore the fundamental transformations in global economy, politics, social life and technology. The coronavirus pandemic that which you mentioned before has become a major challenge to the entire mankind has just spurred or accelerated the structural changes, the preconditions for which have already in place for many years. The pandemic has exacerbated the problems and imbalances that are accumulated in the world earlier. We have every reason to believe that the tensions might aggravate even further and such tendencies might emerge in almost every area. Naturally, there are no direct parallels in history, but some experts, however, and I do respect their opinion, they compare the current situation to the late 20s or early 30s of the last century. One can may agree or disagree with such an opinion, yet one cannot but draw some parallel in terms of many aspects, the scale as well as the cross cutting and systemic nature of challenges and potential threats. We see the crisis, we're witnessing the crisis of previous models and tools of economic development. Social stratification is increasing both globally and in individual countries. We mentioned this before, but today it causes a sharp polarization in public opinions. Populism, right and left wing radicalism and other extreme movements are on the rise. Domestic political processes, including in leading economies escalating and becoming more violent. All of this cannot but impact the nature, impact the nature of international relations, making them less stable and predictable. International institutions are weakening. Regional conflicts are multiplying. The global security system is degrading and Klaus just mentioned my yesterday's phone call, a phone talk with the US president and we agreed about the extending the start agreement. It's the correct step, but anyway, the contradictions are multiplying. It is well known that in the 20th century, the failure and inability to essentially resolve such issues resulted in a catastrophic world war two. Of course, nowadays, such a heated conflict is not possible. I hope that it's not possible in principle because it will mean the end of our civilization. But I would like to reiterate, however, that the situation might develop unpredictably and uncontrollably if we will sit on our hands doing nothing to avoid it. And there is a possibility that we may experience an actual collapse of global development that might result in a fight of all against all. The warring parties would attempt to tackle the escalated tensions by searching for internal and external enemies. The fight would mean the destruction of not only traditional values and we cherish these values in Russia, such as family, but also fundamental freedoms, including the right of choice and privacy. I would like to know that social crisis and the crisis of values have already caused negative demographic consequences. As a result, the humankind risks losing the entire civilizations and cultures. Our common responsibility today is to avoid such a future that resembles a grim dystopia. We need to ensure development following a different path, one that is positive, balanced and constructive. And in this regard, I would like to elaborate on the key challenges that, in my opinion, are facing the world community today. The first of them, the first one of them is of the social and economic nature. Well, that's true. If we look at the statistics, despite the serious crisis of 2008 and 2020, the past 40 years one can call extremely successful for the global economy. Starting from 1980, the global GDP at purchasing power parity in real terms per capita has doubled. And it's a positive sign. Globalization and domestic growth have resulted in a boost in developing countries. More than a billion people have been lifted out of poverty. For instance, if we take an income level of 5.5 US dollars per person per day at purchasing power parity, according to the World Bank, the number of people with lower income in China has reduced from 1.1 billion in 1990 to less than 300 million in recent years. And it's a success for China. In Russia, this number has decreased from almost 64 million people in 1999 to about 5 million people as of now. And we think that we are moving in the right direction. And it's the most important area. But the main question, the answer to which gives much insight into the current problems is what was the nature of this global growth? Who benefited most from it? Undoubtedly, as I've already said, developing countries gain much benefit from it. Using the growing demand for their traditional and even new products. But however, this embedding in the global economy resulted not only in new jobs and expert earnings for them, but also in social costs, including significant income gap of the population. And what is the situation in the developed countries whose level of average well-being is much higher? Paradoxically, the problems of stratification here in developed countries have proven to be even more profound. According to the World Bank estimates, while there were 3.6 million people living on less than 5.5 US dollars a day in the US in the year 2000. In 2016, this figure rose up to 5.6 million. During the same period, globalization resulted in a substantial increase in the profits of the large multinational companies, primarily American and European ones. And as to the number, as to the people in European countries, developed European countries, the tendency is the same like in America. But again, who gets this revenue is talking about companies. The answer is obvious. Those who represent 1% of the population and what has happened with the other people. For the last 30 years, the income of more than half of the citizens of a number of developed countries in real terms has not increased, while the cost of education and health services has tripled, has increased and has tripled actually. That is millions of people even in rich countries have ceased to see the prospect of increasing their income. At the same time, they face the problems of how to preserve their own health and that of their parents, how to provide quality education for their children. Children, there is also a large proportion of people who in fact turn out to be non-demanded. Thus, according to the International Labor Organization estimates, in 2019, 21% of young people in the world or 267 million were neither studying or working. And even among those who have worked, and it's an interesting figure, even among those who work 30% leave on less than 3.2 US dollars a day at purchasing power parity. Such imbalances in global social and economic development are the direct results of the targeted policy that has been conducted since the ages of the last century, often blatantly and dramatically based on the so-called Washington consensus with its unwritten rules that give priority to private debt driven economic growth with deregulation and low taxes on the rich and corporations. As I've already mentioned, the coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the problems. Last year, the decline in the global economy was the worst since the Second World War. Labor market losses by July were equivalent to almost 500 million jobs. Yes, half of them have been recovered by the end of the year. But still almost 250 million jobs lost is a very large and worrying, worrying figure. In the first nine months of last year alone, global labor income losses total three and a half trillion dollars in the world. And this figure is still rising, which means social tensions are on the rise as well. At the same time, post crisis recovery is not an easy task. If 20 or 30 years ago, the problem could have been resolved through stimulative stimulative macroeconomic policies. That's what we have done. And we still they still doing it. So today such mechanisms are no longer work in fact. The resource is practically exhausted. And it's not my just my as to as the evaluation, thus according to the IMF estimates, the level of aggregate public and private sector debt is close to 200% of global GDP. And then some economies, it has exceeded 300% of national GDP. At the same time, all developed countries now have zero interest rates. And the main developed developing countries historically, historical minimum ones, all this leads to practically, practical impossibility of stimulating the economy with traditional tools by increasing private credit. Quantitive easing, the so called quantitative easing, which only increases inflays the financial asset bubble leads to further stratification in the society and the increasing gap between real and virtual economy. And quite often representatives of real economy sector from many countries keep telling me this. And I think that business representative today will tell me tell me the same. So the increase gap between real and virtual economy, as I said, represents a real threat. And it is fought with serious and unpredictable disturbances certain hopes for residing the previous growth model are related to rapid technological development. Yes, the last 20 years have laid the foundation for what is known as the fourth industrial revolution, which is based on the widespread use of artificial intelligence, automated and robotic solutions. The coronavirus pandemic has greatly accelerated such developments and their implementation. However, this process is also bringing is also bringing about new structural changes in the labor market. Therefore, without efficient efforts by states, many people are risking their jobs. And this often affects the so called middle class, which continues, constitutes the core of any modern society. And let me turn to the second fundamental challenge for the forthcoming decade. In other words, the social and political challenge, increasing economic problems and inequality are splitting the society. They pave the way for social racial national intolerance and this pressure shows through even in those countries, which seem to possess well established civic and democratic institutions that are designed to smooth over mitigate such events and incidents. Systemic social economic problems leads to public discontent. And it requires special attention. They should be these problems should be resolved. There are dangerous illusions that we can just don't deal with it. Bury them deep. But in this case, the public discontent will increase and the society will be divided because the reasons of public discontent has to do with real problems which affect everybody independently. What political beliefs or what political ideas they stick to real problems. They lead to this content. I would point out one more important aspect modern technology, modern technological, first of all, digital giants have been playing an increasingly significant role in the life of the society. We talk a lot about that taking into account what had happened in the United States and we're not talking about economic giants only in certain areas that compete they're competing with states and their audience include million millions and millions of users which are using these ecosystems. They're using ecosystems. And they spend a lot of time there. And the company's monopoly position, as they can see it is best suited for running technological and business processes probably it's true. But here is the question. How well does this monopolies correlate with the public interest? Where is the distinction between successful global businesses sought after services and big data consolidation on the one hand and the efforts to rule the society, the rude and self-serving manner by substituting for legitimate democratic institutions by encroaching on restricting the natural right of people to decide for themselves how to live and what to choose and what you to express freely on the other hand. We've seen all of this just recently in the United States. And everybody understands quite well what I'm talking about. And I'm sure that the majority of people share this view, including those who are participating today at this meeting and finally the third challenge to be more precise the clear threats, which we can face in this decade. I mean the further aggravation of the whole set of international problems. Wow, if states, especially major states choose to search for internal enemies, they will inevitably need an external enemy, the one which they can blame for each and every failure. And the one to which they can redirect the temper and just contact all their own citizens. And we see it. We can see it already. We feel the tension in external policy. We may expect practical steps to become more aggressive. This might include further pressure on countries that do not agree to become docile, easy to control satellites, the use of trade barriers, illegitimate sanctions, restrictions in the financial, technological and information spheres. Such a game without rules is dramatically increasing the risks of the unilateral use of military force, which is very dangerous under the under any pretexts, invented pretexts, as well as the odds of the emergence of new hotspots on our planet. That's cannot but cause the preoccupation, preoccupation among us. Dear participants, dear participants, despite this angle of differences and challenges, it is essential that we keep looking positively into the future and remain committed to the constructive agenda. It would be naive to offer some universal magic solutions for the set problems. But all of us should certainly work to develop common approaches, narrow down discrepancies as much as possible, identify social and global tensions. I would like to reiterate my message. The fundamental reason behind the lack of sustainability and global development is, in many cases, the accumulated social and economic problems. That's why the key issue for us today is this. What logic should we follow in our actions so as not only to quickly restore global and national economies affected by the pandemic, but to ensure that there is such restoration is sustainable in the long term and has a quality structure, enabling it to help overcome the burden of social imbalances. I just clear that, given the above mentioned limitations of the past macroeconomic policies, further development of the economy will be based to a great extent on fiscal stimulus, with state budgets and central banks playing the key role. In fact, we are already witnessing such tendencies in the developed countries as well as in certain developing countries. The increasing role of the government in the socioeconomic sphere at the national level and obviously in matters of the global agenda requires greater responsibility and closer interstate cooperation. There is international fora have invariably been calling for inclusive growth for creating conditions to ensure a decent life for everyone. It is absolutely clear and that's correct and it's absolutely clear that the world cannot follow the path of building an economy that works for a million people or even for the golden billion. It's a destructive type of policy. Such a model is unsustainable by definition and recent developments, including the migration crisis have once again proved that today it is important to move from general statements to actions to put in real efforts and resources to both reducing social inequality within individual states and step by step to narrow the gap between the levels of economic development of different countries and regions of the planet. Thus, we will avoid immigration migration risks designed to ensure sustainable harmonious development. This policy has clear purposes and priorities. Those include the creation of new opportunities for everybody, conditions for people to develop and realize their potential regardless of where they were born and live and where they live. There are four key priorities. How I can see them as the priorities. Probably I will not say nothing new, but I'm expressing the position of Russia. That's what I'm doing. First, a person should have a comfortable environment to live in, which includes housing and accessible infrastructure, transport, energy and utilities. And of course, ecological well-being. We should keep this in mind always. Second, a person must be confident that he or she will have a job that provides a steadily increasing income and therefore an adequate standard of living. People should have access to effective mechanisms for lifelong learning, which is just necessary today, allowing them to keep to develop and build their career and receive a decent pension and social package after retiring. Third, a person must be confident that he or she will receive high quality and effective medical care when needed. That the healthcare system in any event will guarantee them access to most advanced services. Fourth, regardless of family income, children should have opportunities to receive a decent education and fulfill their potential. And this kind of potential every kid has. This is only the only way to guarantee the most effective development of a modern economy and economy. That does not view people as a mean, as means as a mean, but places them at the center only those countries that can make progress in those in these four areas. And I just mentioned the most important areas. So only those countries that can make progress here will ensure sustainable inclusive development. It is these approaches that underline the strategy that Russia is pursuing my country's pursuing our priorities focus on the individual and the family, the center on ensuring demographic development and safeguarding the people on improving the well being and protecting the health of our people. We work to create conditions for decent and efficient work and successful entrepreneurship to ensure digital transformation as a basis for a technology driven future for our entire country rather than a small group of companies. In the coming years, we will concentrate the efforts of the government business and civil society on these tasks and building a stimulating budget policy. In achieving our national development goals, we reopen to a broad international cooperation. And we believe that cooperation matters on the global social and economic agenda would have a positive impact on the general atmosphere and the world affairs and interdependence in solving urgent problems would lead to stronger mutual trust, which is especially relevant today. It is clear that an era associated with attempts to build a centralized unipolar world order is over. It hasn't been started to and there were attempts to do this in just that. But it's over. Such a monopoly was inherently contrary to the cultural and historical diversity of our civilization. There are the realities that there are truly a different centers of development in the world with their own distinctive models, political systems, political models, social institutions. And today, it is extremely important to create mechanisms for coordinating their interests. So so that the diversity in which is natural and the natural competition between the poles of development does not turn into anarchy and multiple protracted conflicts. And we for this, we have to strengthen and develop the universal institutions which bear special responsibility for ensuring global stability and security and elaboration of rules of conduct in the world economy and trade. I've mentioned many times that many university institutions are facing facing hard times today. And at different summits, I keep telling about that. These institutions have been created in during different era and they're facing today's challenges. It's not an easy test for them objectively. But I'd like to stress that we just we shall support them. They have unique experience when it comes to using huge potential we have not been implemented. It should be adapted to the realities. But we should use it. We shall not make history of them. We should use a new form of interaction when it comes to multilateralism. Certainly it can also be understood in different ways. It can be seen as a way of promoting one's own interests and making one's unilateral actions look legitimate, while others are left with no other choice but to not in approval, or it can be an opportunity for sovereign states to actually join their efforts to deal with specific problems for the common good. In particular, this may involve the settlement of regional conflicts and creation of technological alliances as well as many other areas, including the formation of cross-border transport and energy corridors, etc. Dear friends and gentlemen, you do understand that we have here vast opportunities for mutual work. Such multilateral approaches actually work. And the practical work shows that let me remind you that a lot has been done by Russia, Iran and Turkey within the Astana format to stabilize the situation in Syria. And they are currently contributing to the establishment of a political dialogue in that country. We are doing this with other countries. We are doing it together. And Rajah engaged in active mediation efforts to put an end to the armed conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a conflict between the nations that are our old friends and neighbors, Azerbaijan and Armenia. These efforts were guided by the key arrangements made by the OSCE Minsk Group, particularly by its co-chair, Russia, the US and France. It's another good example of cooperation, as it is known at our electoral statement was signed by Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in November. More importantly, most of its provisions are constantly put into practice. This has helped to end the bloodshed, which is the most important thing. The ending of the bloodshed. We established a complete ceasefire and we start with the stabilization process. Right now, the task for the international community, and of course, those countries that have been involved in the resolving the crisis is to provide assistance to the affected regions to help them overcome the humanitarian problems associated with return of refugees, restoration of the destroyed infrastructure, and protection of historical, religious and cultural monuments, and their restoration. Also note, another example. I would like to stress the role played by Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States in the stabilization of the world energy market. This format has provided an example of a productive interaction between countries with different and sometimes even opposite assessments of global processes with their own views of the world. At the same time, there are, of course, issues that affect all states without exception. A good example is the joint work to study and combat the COVID-19 infection. Recently, several types of this dangerous disease have emerged. It is well known. And the world community needs to create an environment that enables scientists and specialists to work together in order to understand why and how the coronavirus mutations occur. What is the difference between its strains? And of course, there is a need for worldwide coordination of efforts on the general secretary, UN general secretary calls upon it. We need to coordinate of efforts to distribute and facilitate the accessibility of the much needed COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines help should be provided to states that need it the most, including African states. Such help should involve the increase, should involve the increase in the number of tests and vaccination. As we can see, a mass vaccination is accessible mostly today for those who live in the developed countries. At the same time, there are hundreds of millions of people in our world who cannot even hope to get such protection and reality such inequality could result in a common threat. Because the pandemic, and it is well known, the pandemic will drag on and uncontrolled epicenters will remain. Infections and pandemics, no border. That's why we need to learn the lessons from the current situation and to come up with measures to make the system for global monitoring of emergence of such diseases more effective. And another important area which requires the entire world community to coordinate efforts. It has to do with the preservation of climate and nature of our planet. Nothing you here. Only together we can achieve progress in addressing such serious problems as the global warming, depletion of forests, loss of biodiversity, increasing waste volumes and marine plastic pollution, so on and so forth. Find an optimal balance between the interests of economic development and preservation of the environment for the current and future generations. Dear foreign participants, dear friends, we all know that competition rivalry between the countries has never in the world's history stopped and they will not stop. And differences, clashes of interests are all natural for such a complex organism as the today's human civilization in general. However, however, at critical times, it was never an obstacle, but rather it prompted a concerted efforts in dealing with the most vital and truly life changing situations. And I believe that now is exactly such a period. It is crucial to give a nonnest assessment of the situation to focus on real global problems, rather than perceived ones on remitting the imbalances of imbalances which are critical for the entire world community. And then I'm sure we'll be able to achieve success to give a solid response for the challenges of the third decade of the 21st century. I'd like to stop here. And I'd like to thank for your patience and for your attention. Issues you raised certainly are part also of our discussions here during the Davos week. We complement the speeches also by task forces which address some of the issues you mentioned like not leaving the developing world behind, taking care of let's say creating some skills for tomorrow and so on. So, Mr. President, I have we prepare for the discussion afterwards, but I have one very short question. How do you see and I it's a question which we discussed when I visited you in St. Petersburg 14 months ago. How do you see the future of European Russian relations? Just a short answer. Well, we have fundamental issues. We have common culture. Most important political figures in Europe, in the recent past mentioned the need to keep developing the relations between Europe and Russia, stressing the fact that Russia is part of your geographically and what is most important from the cultural point of view. It's just one civilization in reality. French leaders mentioned the need to create a common space from Lisbon to euros. And I mentioned just the same. Why just to your euros? We shall extend it to Vladivostok. Me personally, I had the position of the former distinguished political figure Chancellor Helmut Kahl, who used to say that if the European culture would like to preserve itself and to maintain its role as one of the cultural centers in the world. Again, taking to account all the problems and tendencies of the world civilization development. So where Western Europe and Russia should be together. And we cannot but agree with this. We share the same position and the same opinion. Today's situation is no doubt far from being normal. We have to come back to the positive agenda. This is the common interest of Russia and European countries, no doubt about that. Well, the pandemic has played its negative role. Our trade turnover was has been affected, although your European Union is one of our main trade partners. So we have to come back to positive tendencies. And we have to increase our interaction. Russia and Europe, from economic point of view, are the natural partners. And from the point of view of first science development, technological development, development from the space point of view, Russia is sharing European culture. But the territory of Russia is a little bit bigger than the entire Europe. We have a huge human resources. And I will not enumerate all we have. But it could be used to benefit for Russia and Europe. What is important here is the following. We should approach in honest manner to our dialogue. We should get rid of our past phobias. We shall not use in our internal political processes problems which we inherited from the previous centuries. We shall look into the future to the future. And if we are able to get rid of this phobias and old problems, then we will create a positive stage of our relations. We are ready for this. We would like to get this and we will do our best to get to achieve this. But it should not be a unilateral approach. It should be a common approach.