The intensive historical campaign which has been ongoing in Russia in recent weeks, in connection with the seventieth anniversary of World War II, culminated on 31 August and 1 September with statements by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The main message of these statements was that any attempts at building security in Europe without Russia as a key player were doomed to failure. This suggests that - unlike in the case of the previous propaganda exercises of this kind - one of the aims of the present campaign is to convince the West of the necessity to build a new security order in Europe, and to neutralise the resistance of those European states which are critical of Russia (especially Poland and the Baltic States).
