BEIJING, May 14. /TASS/. Protectionism is becoming a norm in the modern world as the potential of previous economic development models has already been exhausted, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the opening ceremony of the One Belt, One Road forum in the Chinese capital Beijing.
"The risks of fragmentation of the global economic and technological space are becoming more and more evident. Protectionism is becoming a norm, and unilateral illegitimate restrictions, including for sales and expansion of technologies, are an indirect form of it," Putin said.
According to the Russian president, 20th century economic models are in crisis today.
"Many previous models and factors of economic development have been almost completely depleted. The concept of a welfare state, created in the 20th century, is also in a crisis. Today, it is not only unable to ensure a sustainable growth of welfare, but sometimes even to maintain it at its previous level," he said.
According to Putin, the notions of openness, free trade are rejected more and more often today, "sometimes even by their recent advocates."
"The imbalance in the social economic development, the crisis of the previous globalization model entail negative consequences for inter-state relations and global security," the president said.