On 19 June 2020, an article by President of Russia Vladimir Putin titled 75th Anniversary of the Great Victory: Shared Responsibility to History and our Future was posted on the kremlin.ru website. President Putin wrote it to share his views on the events before the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the importance of its outcome for the current generation, and the current state of international affairs.
Vladimir Putin focused on the role of the United Nations. He believes that the current form of cooperation within the UN is designed "to make peace guarantees as concrete and effective as possible… The UN system currently experiences a certain tension in its work and is not as effective as it could be. But the UN still performs its primary function. The principles of the UN Security Council are a unique mechanism for preventing a major war or a global conflict."
The President of Russia pointed out the importance of the heads of permanent UN Security Council members holding a meeting in order to discuss current challenges and the outlook. "It is a duty of ours — all those who take political responsibility and primarily representatives of the victor powers in the Second World War — to guarantee that this system is maintained and improved. Today, as in 1945, it is important to demonstrate political will and discuss the future together. Our colleagues — Mr Xi Jinping, Mr Macron, Mr Trump and Mr Johnson — supported the Russian initiative to hold a meeting of the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states, permanent members of the Security Council. We thank them for this and hope that such a face-to-face meeting can take place as soon as possible," Vladimir Putin wrote.
When writing about the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the President noted that the rate of economic recovery would depend on the ability to work together and in concert, adding that it is unacceptable to turn the economy into an instrument of pressure and confrontation.
The full text of the article is available at kremlin.ru.