Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday the world faces the most dangerous and unpredictable decade since the end of World War II — even as he insisted that the war in Ukraine was going according to plan. Over the course of a four-hour appearance at a foreign policy conference in Moscow, Putin said Russia stands ready for a negotiated end to the conflict in Ukraine, but insisted Ukraine and its allies are not willing to engage in diplomacy. He also railed against Western powers, comparing them to Nazi Germany.

President Vladimir Putin: “The disintegration of the Soviet Union destroyed the balance of geopolitical powers. The West felt it was the victor and declared a unipolar world order in which only its will, its culture, its interests had the right to exist. Now this historic period of Western dominance in world affairs is coming to an end.”