Russia in Global Affairs

Nature protection and preservation should become an important component of the Russian national idea, its mission for itself and the world, and an important element of its international identity. International cooperation in nature protection should become Russia’s important positive contribution to global development and part of its international attractiveness and authority.

On January 23 Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the National Research University Higher School of Economics arranged Expert Panel on US-Russia Relations for the Stanford US-Russia Forum 2021 delegates, featuring, among others, Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs.

There is a danger that by focusing entirely on the pandemic Russia and the international community might get distracted from addressing fundamental problems―devising and implementing a new, future-oriented ideological base and agenda for Russia’s foreign policy.

So, where should BRICS be headed now that it has gone beyond basic dialogue among the five nations? While not planning to become a non-western replica of the G7, BRICS is gradually becoming a global governance centre, and such questions must be considered.

The world has been changing so dramatically lately that even the Russian approach to strategic stability, characteristic of the period after the collapse of the USSR, and its understanding adopted in 1990 are rapidly becoming obsolete. As non-nuclear weapons acquire strategic properties and the line between war and peace becomes increasingly vague, the very nature of the threat of nuclear war is changing fundamentally: its outbreak becomes much more likely due to the escalation of a non-nuclear conflict than to an unexpected nuclear attack.

On the whole, the risk of nuclear war and mankind annihilation has increased even though no one has any intention to start it, writes Sergei A. Karaganov and Dmitry V. Suslov. Many factors, on the one hand, indicate that there is a low risk of premeditated war, specially a nuclear one, between nuclear powers; but on the other hand, they substantially increase the risk of unintended military conflict between them and its possible escalation to a global nuclear war.

Since around 2017–2018, the world has been living through a period of progressive erosion, or collapse, of international orders inherited from the past. With the election of Donald Trump and the rapid increase of US containment of Russia and China—which is both a consequence of this gradual erosion and also represents deep internal and international contradictions—this process entered its apogee.

The first full-fledged summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held in late July has not improved and, indeed, could not have improved the general atmosphere of Russia-US relations.

Despite the political and administrative chaos in Washington, the US is crystallizing its foreign policy strategy for the next few years.