(AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the world risks sliding deeper into instability as the coronavirus pandemic combines with global rivalries and other international tensions.
Speaking during a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Putin pointed Wednesday at growing inequality and unemployment and a rise of populism as potential triggers for conflicts that could plunge the world into a “dark anti-Utopia.”
He hailed the decision by Russia and the United States to extend their last nuclear arms control pact as positive, but he added that spiraling tensions have come to resemble the situation before World War II. He said, “International institutions are weakening, regional conflicts are multiplying and the global security is degrading.”
