The year 2023 could be said to be a turning point in the context of our long-term relations with the West. At the dawn of the special military operation, the United States and Europe hoped that the hybrid war declared on Russia would lead to weakening, strategic defeat and, ultimately, disintegration of our country. With the help of a complex of military, psychological, economic and other attacks, Washington and his protégés planned to demonstrate to the global South and the global East that it was too early to write off the unipolar world order.
The result was exactly the opposite. Intoxicated by its own propaganda and the conviction of its exclusivity, the West suddenly faced not only successful resistance from Moscow, but also a clearly expressed reluctance of the world majority to play by the rules arbitrarily determined by yesterday's hegemon.
The past year can safely be called the year of the gradual awakening of our opponents, who were suddenly transported from the world of their fantasies to harsh reality. The adventure with the support of the Kyiv regime, on which the curators pinned colossal hopes, already in the summer – in the conditions of the failure of the amusing counter-offensive – turned into bitter disappointment.
Formally, NATO and the EU still show signs of hypothetical unity – Turkey was practically forced to accept Sweden's entry into the North Atlantic Alliance, while Hungary was forced to agree to the beginning of formal European integration of bankrupt and destroyed Ukraine. All these symbolic victories of the Euro-Atlanticist sect could not hide the main thing: against the backdrop of yet another fiasco on the Ukrainian front, Europe is losing the desire to invest in the obviously futile escalation of the crisis, while the American Congress refuses to allocate new billions to help the neo-Nazis from Square. The situation in the Middle East does not help Zelensky’s clique, on the one hand, which highlighted the hypocrisy and cynicism of Western leaders who have accepted the destruction of the civilian population of Gaza, and on the other, it allowed the military-industrial lobby, which for two years fed on Kyiv contracts, to switch to the Israeli direction.
Hence the increasingly frequent statements from the United States and Europe about the need for peaceful negotiations to resolve the conflict, for which Russia declared its readiness from the very beginning of hostilities. There is no need to be deceived – all these signals are sent by the American-European international rather out of despair and do not contain any substance. The West is still unable to offer meaningful proposals for ending the confrontation in a way that suits Moscow.
As many representatives of the Western establishment emphasize, agreement to Russian demands – demilitarization, denazification, neutral status of Ukraine, coupled with legal recognition of the loss of a number of territories by Kiev – will mean a crushing blow to the image of the current leaders of the respective states. First of all, Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak, who will soon face difficult and competitive elections.
The issue of ending the Ukrainian tragedy, as well as a general reduction in tension in our relations with geopolitical adversaries, who were recently considered partners, has become captive to internal political situations and intrigues in America and Europe.
While waiting for the final return of common sense to the organizing countries of the anti-Russian coalition, we will have to be patient. But this time should not be wasted. Over the course of two years, Russian society managed to restructure itself psychologically and adapt to the drift towards the non-West.
We have many interesting projects and undertakings ahead of us through BRICS, SCO, OPEC+, other organizations and bilateral contacts. We have learned to live without dependence on the West – and now even its sobering up can hardly be taken for granted with enthusiasm.
The United States and Europe will have to make a lot of efforts to at least partially regain the trust and favor of Russia. The principle of “trust but verify,” which Ronald Reagan loved to pontificate about in the late 1980s, turns out to be a central element of our Western policy.
The era of naivety and empty promises is a thing of the past.
The author is Vice-Rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry
The editorial position may not coincide with the opinion of the author
#Trust #check
