RUSSIA, December 6 - The Prime Minister gave a lecture titled “Creating the future today” at the lecture hall of the Russian Znaniye Society as part of the Russia International Exhibition and Forum’s educational programme.

Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, friends.

I am glad to welcome all of you to a lecture offered by the Russian Znaniye Society.

Before we begin, I would like to present our high-level guest, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Japarov. He is currently on a working visit to Moscow and was willing to join us at this event. I would like to thank him for his presence.

This time, the Znaniye Society is presenting its project as part of the Russia International Exhibition and Forum. It shows the country’s most important and spectacular achievements that we pride ourselves in, which can be credited to our talented researchers, inventors, engineers, cultural figures and artists. In this lecture, we will discuss how these people contribute to developing our country. Of course, we will also talk about the future. You, the young generation of Russians, are the ones who will shape this future.

The world is rapidly changing forcing us to rethink all the rules and practices we have grown used to. As our President has been saying, a new, multipolar world order with better justice for all is about to replace the older unipolar system. This is the main trend today.

There is a real effort underway to dismantle international law, which has been underpinning the global order since the end of World War II. It was at that time that the United Nations was created, and then, for decades to come, it defined the boundaries for state action. Back then, the goal was quite straightforward and consisted of preventing the tragic events of the early and mid-20^th century from ever occurring again. However, we can see today that the norms set forth at the time no longer work.

There were many reasons for that.

A loss of trust among international actors is the first such factor. This is primarily attributable to some countries seeking to rewrite the rules of the game in order to reinforce their leadership at the expense of others.

Another important factor was the arrival of new, emerging economies aspiring to regional and global leadership.

There was also the onset of Industry 4.0 – the Fourth Industrial Revolution – with joint manufacturing giving way to new economic practices rooted in innovation and digital technology. The latter now serve as the main growth drivers for national economies and entire sectors. The sharing economy provided a major impetus for introducing artificial intelligence. Only countries capable of creating and introducing cutting-edge solutions can succeed in this environment.

All these developments have heightened political, social and economic issues, bringing into question the inviolable nature of property and free trade.

Today, some are trying to prevent us from accessing technology. This goes far beyond state-of-the-art solutions, for example, in space exploration or hydrogen engines. It concerns even simple things such as communications, medicine, getting information and basic research.

More to be posted soon.