In his speech at the Valdai Discussion Club on October 1, 2026, #Putin made some of his strongest statements since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. His main messages focused on three areas: On the use of #nuclear weapons Putin directly invoked the “Chekhov’s gun principle,” saying that if a gun is hanging on the wall at the beginning of a play, it will inevitably be fired by the end. He stressed that it is impossible to guarantee that weapons of mass destruction will never be used