In his recent Valdai speech, President Vladimir Putin declared that the age of a single model for all has ended, and that nations now moor themselves in their own traditions, drawing strength from culture, faith, and history. Across the globe, ancestral values are reawakening as globalism and cultural imperialism are receding. The world is witnessing a rising concert of sovereign civilizations.

Putin spoke with clarity about the condition of the world. He stated that there is no shared agreement on how the international order should be structured. Mankind has begun a long era of searching. The path forward will be marked by trial and error, by turbulence and storms. No blueprint exists. No authority dictates the outcome. We live in open history, raw and uncertain.

Yet amidst this chaos, Putin said, nations must hold on to anchors. They cannot drift with the currents of instability. The true anchor lies in culture, in the ethical and religious values that have ripened through centuries, in geography, and in the space each civilization inhabits. These form the compass of identity. They provide the foundations on which nations can build a steady life, even as winds howl and waves rise.

Traditions are at the heart of this compass. Each nation possesses its own. Each tradition is unique, shaped by its land and history. Respect for these traditions, Putin said, is the first law of order among peoples. Attempts to force a single model upon the world have always failed. The Soviet Union tried to impose its system. The United States then took up the baton. Europe joined shortly after. Each failed. What is artificial cannot last. What grows from outside roots will wither. Only what is born from within endures. Those who honor their own heritage rarely trample upon........

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