A decade on, the many facets contained in that address have only become all the more enhanced and tangible.

Speaking to a senior international audience at the annual Munich Security Conference, on February 10, 2007, the Russian leader opened by saying he was going to speak about world relations forthrightly and not in "empty diplomatic terms". In what followed, Putin did not disappoint. With candor and incisiveness, he completely leveled the arrogance of American unilateral power.

He condemned the "aspirations of world supremacy" as a danger to global security. "We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law," adding at a later point: "One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way."