SOCHI, October 5. /TASS/. A lasting global peace will be established when all countries understand that their opinion is respected and feel safe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Valdai Forum.

"Lasting peace will be established only when everyone feels safe, realizes that their opinion is respected and that there is a balance in the world, when no one is able to force others to live as the hegemon pleases at will. In such a system, the very notion of a hegemon is simply negated, thrown in the trash," the president said.

He also pointed out that today everyone realizes that in the international system, "where arbitrariness reigns, where everything is decided by the one who considers himself exceptional, sinless, the only right," anyone can be attacked. "Simply because this or that country does not please the hegemon, which has lost its sense of proportion and, I would add, its sense of reality. Unfortunately, we have to say that our Western colleagues have lost their sense of reality and have crossed all possible boundaries. Too bad for them," Putin said.