Russia in Global Affairs

In this insightful interview conducted by Modern Diplomacy executive Kester Kenn Klomegah with Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Research Director at the Valdai Discussion Club, and Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, focused largely on Russia and Africa relations, and a few aspects of the emerging new world order.

In this episode of #ThePrintUninterrupted, Fyodor Lukyanov tells ThePrint's Senior Consulting Editor Jyoti Malhotra that the people of Russia support President Vladimir Putin in the conflict against Ukraine, that the West wants to weaken Russia via the Ukraine conflict, that Russia is trying to evolve an alternative world order to that of the West, that China and Russia are in the same boat today vis-a-vis the US and that India's politics have become even more interesting.

It should be emphasized that Russia literally turned to arms after decades of other, peaceful attempts to correct (not destroy) the Western-led system and find a proper place there. It did not produce any meaningful response from the West, because the West was fully convinced that the existing scheme was fine for all. And those who thought differently were just wrong.

The Russian president is a "calculated player" and "very much aware about all dangers," says Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine. On February 3, 2022, he took part in “Conflict Zone” TV program by DW.com.

We have existed for 2000 years. We have survived, sometimes in small numbers and sometimes in great numbers, every kind of political totalitarianism that the world could throw at us: from Roman emperors to invading Huns, and, in later centuries, totalitarianism of the far right and the far left. And we Orthodox believers didn’t really change anything.

What were relations like inside Ukraine’s Orthodox community before the moment when the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople supported the idea of a national Church? Russia in Global Affairs put this and other questions to Vladislav Petrushko, Doctor of Ecclesiastical History, and Professor at St. Tikhon Orthodox University.

We have no rosy expectations that any outcome could change the relationship for the better. Nor do we have very negative expectations, because it's really quite difficult to imagine something worse than what we have now. The international environment is very important for Russia, the impact that US policy will have on the general atmosphere in the world.

“The UN should play a decisive role, as before, in preventing great powers from going to war against one another. There is a risk that the severe economic crisis that is manifesting will lead to social decline so the UN’s capacity to maintain peace should be strengthened. ”

Is the topic of populism relevant to modern Russia? Can our conditions produce the phenomenon that is currently observed in Europe and the United States, and is generally spreading around the world? And is it not time to abandon the model based on political parties? These issues were dis-cussed at a roundtable held in the office of the Russia in Global Affairs journal and attended by Yuri Vasilyev, Gleb Kuznetsov, Vitaly Leibin and Oleg Kharkhordin. Fyodor Lukyanov, Rus-sia in Global Affairs editor-in-chief, moderated the discussion.