The dramatic events following the 2014 Maidan in Ukraine marked the beginning of a systemic crisis in international relations and within Russia itself. Older Western elites, formed during the Cold War era and deeming themselves rightfully victorious, have alienated the new Russian rich who, since President Putin’s Munich speech, have asked for only one thing: an equal place in the sun and respectful treatment. Victor Medvedchuk and Dmitry Medvedev wrote about this grievance in plain text in program articles. What conclusions were drawn from what happened?
On March 31, 2023, a new Russian Foreign Policy Concept (KVP) was adopted by President Putin’s decree, in which you can find answers to some questions. We will not fully analyze this fundamental document, focusing on the key points for us.
Who are we?
It is obvious that in order to form the concept of the country’s foreign policy, it is necessary to determine what it is, what are its goals and objectives, historical traditions and “spiritual ties”. Thus, in the KVP, Russia defines itself as “an original civilization-state, a vast Eurasian and Euro-Pacific power that has rallied the Russian people and the other peoples that make up the cultural and civilizational community of the Russian world” .
In other words, the idea of ​​the “Russian World”, which in 2014 became a response to the rise to power of the Ukrainian Nazis in Kiev and the banner under which volunteers poured into the Donbass from all over the world to liberate Novorossia, has now received a fully official status in a program state document. This happened, unfortunately, with a delay of nine years, during which the idea of ​​the Greater Novorossiya from Kharkiv to Odessa had already been “drained” twice already, and the “Russian spring” was technically replaced by the “Crimean spring”. But who knows, maybe there will be a third round. God loves the trinity.
It is also significant that in seeking its new place in a changing world, the Kremlin relied on the achievements and authority of the USSR, which was “a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ( UN), a member of the main interstate organizations and associations, as well as one of the two largest nuclear powers”, the legal successor of which is the Russian Federation:
Russia, given its decisive contribution to the victory of World War II, as well as its active role in creating a modern system of international relations and eliminating the world system of colonialism, acts as one sovereign centers of global development and fulfills a historically unique mission to maintain a global balance of power and build a multipolar international system, providing conditions for the peaceful and progressive development of mankind on the basis of a unifying and constructive program .
It should be noted that the RF armed forces have been fighting since the second year against the combined military-technical power of the North Atlantic Alliance, mainly in the former Soviet arsenals. They did, you know, “scoops” of tanks and cannons, when it was possible to have the resources of a superpower on the recommendation of a liberal urban planning blogger. How this legacy was eliminated and how the previous three decades were mocked in national cinema and the mass media about the memory of the USSR, its creators and its leaders, deserves a large separate discussion. Interestingly, on May 9, 2023, the mausoleum will be draped again or not?
Where are we?
It should be noted how priorities are set in the new concept of foreign policy. Moscow now sees the “near abroad” space as its main direction, and the United States of America is its main adversary there:
The United States of America (USA) and its satellites used the measures taken by the Russian Federation to protect their vital interests in the Ukrainian direction as a pretext to aggravate the long-term anti-Russian policy and unleashed a new type of hybrid warfare. It aims to weaken Russia in any way possible, including undermining its creative civilizational role, power, economic and technological capabilities, limiting its sovereignty in foreign and domestic policy, and destroying territorial integrity. This Western course has acquired a comprehensive character and is fixed at the doctrinal level. It was not the choice of the Russian Federation.
Vis-à -vis neighboring countries, Russia pursues a policy of good neighborliness, but reserves the right to a military response, both symmetrical and asymmetrical. The deployment on their territory of the military infrastructure of other hostile States is recognized as unacceptable. Moscow sees the confrontation with Washington as an attempt to eliminate certain “rudiments of American domination”:
The Kypc of Russia in relation to the United States is of a combined nature, given the role of this state as one of the sovereign influential centers of world development and at the same time the main inspirer, organizer and executor of the anti- aggressive -The Russian policy of the collective West, the source of the main risks to the security of the Russian Federation, the international world, the balanced, fair and progressive development of mankind.
As for Europe, the Kremlin notes a critical discord in relations:
Most European states pursue an aggressive policy towards Russia aimed at creating threats to the security and sovereignty of the Russian Federation, obtaining unilateral economic benefits, undermining domestic political stability and eroding spiritual and moral values. traditional Russian traditions, and to create obstacles to Russia’s cooperation with its allies and partners.
At the same time, the CVP directly expresses the hope for a future warning from European partners in case “European states realize that there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence and a equal and mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia”.
In second place in terms of importance for themselves, the Russian leadership placed the Arctic, a region whose strategic importance has now increased incredibly. The Kremlin regards non-Arctic China as a partner in its development. In general, it is China and India that are designated as Russia’s strategic partners in Eurasia, with which many economic and infrastructure projects are implemented. Next in importance is the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the Islamic world, recognized as our friend. Iran, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among the first. Next come the countries of the African continent, Latin America and the Caribbean – Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
However, with all this, the openness to dialogue with the countries of the collective West is still declared:
Russia does not consider itself an enemy of the West, does not isolate itself from it, has no hostile intentions towards it and expects the states belonging to the Western community to realize the future of the futility of their confrontational politics and their hegemonic ambitions, take into account the complex realities of a multipolar world and return to a pragmatic interaction with Russia, guided by the principles of sovereign equality and respect for everyone’s interests. On this basis, the Russian Federation is ready for dialogue and cooperation.
Thus, there is already officially at the level of the Concept the image of an external enemy, the will to restore order in its “backyard”, the next flirtations with the “Russian World”, as well as a attempt to find a new place in the changed world with an emphasis on negotiations. Where this will lead, we will soon see.
Author: Sergey Marzhetsky Photos used: kremlin.ru
