Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the Presidential Council for the Local Self-Government Development via a video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, on April 20, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

MOSCOW - The global trend towards multipolarity will intensify, and those who choose to resist this shift will ultimately lose and face new challenges, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

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"The global trend ... towards multipolarity is inevitable, and will only intensify," Putin said during a videoconference of the Council for Local Self-Government Development.

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"Those, who do not understand this, and who will choose not to follow this trend, will lose," he said.

"This is an obvious fact," the president noted, adding that those who try to prevent this will only "face additional problems" which they already have enough of.