Putin's speech at the 43rd Munich Security Conference in 2007 was delivered on 10 February 2007, at the invitation of the Munich Conference's Chairman Horst Teltschik, the first speech by a Russian head of state at the Munich Conference. The main topics of his speech were criticism of the unipolar world order and the OSCE, NATO's eastward expansion, disarmament and the Iranian nuclear program. Putin's speech was seen as Russia's message to the West that it would not accept a subordinate role in international affairs. The speech heralded a significant change in Russian foreign policy and signaled a more assertive and independent stance on the international stage. Putin made it clear that Russia was ready to defend its interests and take a more active role in shaping the global order.[1][2][3][4]
The speech came to be known in Russian as the Munich speech (Russian: Мюнхенская речь)[5].
Preparations
Teltschik and Putin
The invitation to Vladimir Putin was extended by Horst Teltschik, the long-time chairman of the Munich Security Conference. Teltschik had met with Putin on numerous occasions since 1999, including private meetings. In May 2006, Teltschik visited Putin in Sochi and discussed the possibility of his participation. He proposed that Putin use the platform to present his position openly and candidly to an audience of significant international resonance.[6] Teltschik informed Angela Merkel of the discussion in a detailed letter but reportedly received no response.[7] According to historian Peter Hoeres, a key statement from Putin during this exchange, as relayed in Teltschik’s 2024-published diary, read: "Relations between Russia and NATO must first be clarified and further developed before Ukraine can join NATO; otherwise, NATO will be considered an enemy by Russia."[8] Angela Merkel last met with Putin on January 21, 2007, in Sochi to personally outline her objectives for Germany's concurrent EU and G8 presidencies, which began on January 1.[9] One of her goals was to renew the EU-Russia cooperation agreement, particularly on energy supply issues.[10] In her 2024 autobiography, Merkel described the meeting with Putin as tense, marked by his accusations, particularly regarding the Iraq War and planned deployments of medium-range missiles, which Putin considered a direct threat to Russia. Merkel suggested Putin should address the matter directly with George W. Bush.[11] In the days leading up to the conference, Sergei Ivanov had strongly criticized NATO, particularly the United States. Ivanov had brought public attention to the dispute over U.S. plans to deploy missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, according to journalist Eckart Lohse.[12] The night before his speech, Putin met with Minister-President of BavariaEdmund Stoiber at the "Vier Jahreszeiten" hotel in Munich. Defence Minister Ivanov and his son joined the meeting later. [13] Putin arrived in Munich with a delegation of 200 staff members.[14] His convoy included a specially armored Mercedes S-Class vehicle, followed by other vehicles, including a ZiL limousine.[15]
Synopsis
Stoiber and Putin
Putin criticized what he called the United States' monopolistic dominance in the world, and its "almost uncontained hypertrophied use of force in international relations". According to Putin, the result of such dominance was that "no one feels safe! Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them. Of course such a policy stimulates an arms race."[16] Putin quoted a 1990 speech by Manfred Wörner to support his position that NATO promised not to expand into new countries in Eastern Europe. He stated "[Wörner] said at the time that: 'the fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee.' Where are these guarantees?"[16][17]
While NATO was still a year away from tentatively inviting Ukraine and Georgia in 2008 to become NATO member-states, Putin emphasized how Russia perceived the alliance's eastward expansion as a threat: "I think it is obvious that NATO expansion does not have any relation with the modernisation of the Alliance itself or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended? And what happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them."[18] Putin also publicly opposed plans for the U.S. missile shield in Europe, and presented President George W. Bush with a counter proposal on 7 June 2007, which was declined.[19]
Putin expressed his indignation over the alleged procrastination over the ratification of the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty concluded in 1999, saying: "Seven years have passed and only four states have ratified this document, including the Russian Federation."[16] (Russia would suspend its participation in the treaty in July 2007[20][21])
Reception
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reacted by saying, "Nobody wants a new Cold War with Russia."[22] In his speech the following day, he said that many of those listening had a diplomatic or political background, and like the second speaker yesterday, Putin, he himself had a career in the espionage business. "And I guess old spies have a habit of speaking bluntly." Gates expressed concerns about Russian arms deliveries. Russia was tempted to use energy resources for political purposes, which could endanger international stability. However, he saw common problems and challenges that needed to be addressed in partnership with other countries, including Russia.[23]
Gates explained that NATO had not simply “triumphed” over the Warsaw Pact at the turning point in world politics in 1989/91, but that the ideas of freedom and human rights had proved their appeal and their primacy over the powers of oppression and lack of freedom. Gates also expressly distanced himself from outdated distinctions between "old" and "new" Europe, "with which his predecessor Rumsfeld had repeatedly angered NATO partners on this side of the Atlantic." Gates reacted calmly and astonished to Putin's accusations and mentioned the invitation to Moscow that Putin and Defense Minister Ivanov had extended to him. [24]
In his memoirs, Gates stated that after the conference he told Bush that he believed that the West, and especially the United States from 1993 onwards, had greatly underestimated the extent of the humiliation for Russia caused by its defeat in the Cold War. "What I did not tell the president was that I believe that relations with Russia after 1993 have been poorly managed." The US agreements with the Romanian and Bulgarian governments to rotate troops across bases in those countries were an "needless provocation.". The attempt to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO had been truly overreaching, a case of “recklessly ignoring what the Russians considered their own vital national interests.”"[25][26]
U.S. SenatorJoe Lieberman said that the speech was "provocative" and marked by "rhetoric that sounded more like the Cold War".[27] Former NATO secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called it "disappointing and not helpful."[28] The months following the Munich speech[16] were marked by tension and a surge in rhetoric on both sides of the Atlantic. Both Russian and American officials, however, denied the idea of a new Cold War.[29]
The Polish Institute of International Affairs described Putin's quotation from Manfred Wörner's speech as lacking appropriate context, stating that Wörner's speech "only concerned non-deployment of NATO forces on East German territory after reunification."[17]
Legacy
Both during the run-up to and shortly after, the launch of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the speech was revisited with some political analysts and commentators arguing it to have been a revelation of Putin's intentions that was at the time misread by the West and not taken seriously enough.[30][31][32][33] According to Andrew A. Michta's opinion published by The Wall Street Journal in August 2022, Western leaders had failed in 2007 to recognize the speech "amounted to a declaration of war on the West."[34]
Follow-ups
Putin later made other speeches that were called follow-ups to the Munich speech, including:
The 2013 Valdai speech of Vladimir Putin in Sochi on 19 September 2013
The 2015 U. N. General Assembly speech of Vladimir Putin in New York on 28 September 2015 ("I'm urged to ask those who created this situation: do you at least realize now what you’ve done?")[35]
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