Western leaders rallied to defend liberal values on Friday at the start of a G20 summit in Japan, rejecting Vladimir Putin’s assertion that liberalism had become “obsolete”.
The Russian president told the Financial Times in an interview on Thursday that values such as multiculturalism, open borders and social tolerance were no longer accepted by the majority of people, and had “outlived their purpose”. Mr Putin also praised US president Donald Trump for responding to the views of voters who had rejected some of those values.
“[Liberals] cannot simply dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades,” Mr Putin said.
The powerful attack on values that have underpinned western democracies since 1945 aligned the Russian president with several national populists and anti-establishment movements that have surged to power in the west in recent years. Some of those movements have been suspected of receiving support from Moscow.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president, and Theresa May, the British prime minister, both issued statements rebuffing his remarks.
“I was able to read the whole interview with President Putin in the Financial Times,” said Mr Tusk, who saw a populist resurgence in his native Poland knock the liberal party that he led out of office in 2015. “I have to say that I strongly disagree with the main argument that liberalism is obsolete. We are here as Europeans also to firmly and unequivocally defend and promote liberal democracy.”
At his bilateral meeting with Mr Putin, Mr Trump jokingly warned the Russian president not to meddle in US elections. Mr Putin had earlier told the FT that “Donald” was “a talented person . . . [who] saw changes in American society, and he took advantage of this”.
Mrs May, who held a meeting with Mr Putin and posed for a frosty photocall with the Russian president, said the UK “would continue to unequivocally defend liberal democracy and protect the human rights and equality of all groups, including LGBT people”.
In the 90-minute interview with the FT, Mr Putin echoed nationalist populists such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen, in attacking liberal governments for pursuing what he described as a mindless embrace of multiculturalism and, among other things, sexual diversity.
“Some things do appear excessive to us. They claim now that children can play five or six gender roles,” he said. “Let everyone be happy, we have no problem with that . . . But this must not be allowed to overshadow the culture, traditions and traditional family values of millions of people making up the core population.”
