SOCHI, October 21. /TASS/. The attempts at a diktat of values amid uncertain and unpredictable prospects complicate the situation and trigger the opposite reaction, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club on Thursday.
"The attempts at a diktat of values amid uncertain and unpredictable prospects further complicate the tense situation and normally trigger the opposite reaction and the opposite result," the Russian president said.
As the head of state pointed out, the processes in some countries that had been customarily considered as the flagships of progress cause bewilderment. The Russian leader emphasized at the same time that social and cultural upheavals in the United States and Western Europe were their internal affairs.
"We are not meddling in their affairs," Putin said.
The advocates of so-called social progress erroneously believe that they are bringing some new and more appropriate consciousness to mankind, the Russian leader went on to say.
"The recipes they offer are not new and no matter how unexpected this may seem to some - we had already lived through all this in Russia and witnessed all this," Putin said.
"Relying on the dogmas of Marxism, Marx and Engels, the Bolsheviks also declared after the 1917 Revolution that they would change the entire way of life, not only the political and economic system but also the perception of what human morale and the basis of a society’s healthy existence were," the Russian leader said.
"The destruction of centuries-long values, faith and the relationships between people, up to the complete refusal of a family, which also happened, the encouragement of the practice of acting as informers against close relatives, all this was declared as the march of progress. Incidentally, these practices were supported quite widely in the world at that time and were in fashion the way it is observed today," Putin said.
The aggressive blacking-out of domestic history pages and the reverse discrimination against a majority in the interests of a minority who portray themselves as a movement towards public renewal are not the values of Russian society, he said.
Russia must rely on its spiritual values and its historical tradition and culture, Putin emphasized.