A unipolar world is an undemocratic one

In case you missed it, here's Vladimir Putin's brilliant speech on international affairs, published in today's Guardian.

Here are a couple of extracts worth particular consideration:

What then is a unipolar world? However one might embellish this term, at the end of the day it describes a scenario in which there is one centre of authority, one centre of force, one centre of decision-making. It is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And this is pernicious, not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within. And this, certainly, has nothing in common with democracy. Because democracy is the power of the majority in the light of the interests and opinions of the minority.

We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. One country, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations.

Yesterday The Daily Telegraph asked its readers which country posed the greater threat to the peace of the world: Russia or the USA?

An easy way to answer that is to get a piece of paper and write down the number of countries which Russia has attacked, or threatened to attack, in the last fifteen years.

Then do the same with the USA.

It's pretty one-sided isn't it?