Russia in Global Affairs

“I don't expect a huge Russian victory, but the West will end up weakened. My guess is that Russia hoped to carry out an elegant and bloodless military operation in Ukraine in 2022, as it did in Crimea in 2014”.

Moscow joined the NATO’s Partnership for Peace program 30 years ago, but today there is neither partnership nor peace.

On March 26th, 2024, the Institute for European Studies in Belgrade, Serbia hosted a lecture by Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine, entitled “Contemporary Russia's Foreign Policy.”

Freedom of debate is not only a democratic right. It is also a vital mechanism for formulating and evaluating political alternatives. When a conflict is transformed into an epic struggle between Good and Evil, self-righteousness undermines the potential for diplomacy under the guise of moral rectitude. The current climate of unfreedom not only undermines our core values. It poses an existential threat for humankind.

Genuine multilateralism requires that the UN adapt to objective developments in the process of forming a multipolar architecture of international relations. It is imperative to expedite Security Council reform by expanding the representation of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The inordinate over-representation of the West in the UN’s main body undermines the principle of multilateralism.

Ukrainian conflict is not the thing-in-itself core issue. It’s just a symptom, a sign of ailment the current world order is striving to survive. If the West continues to supply the regime in Kiev with weapons, equipment, and expertise, this conflict will be protracted with more blood and suffering.

The events of 2022—the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and the subsequent economic war of the “collective West” against Russia—have aroused speculations that the St. Petersburg period of Russian history is over. Russia is secluding itself on an “island” and turning towards Asia. The period of rapprochement between Russia and the West is closing up. The country has chosen its own civilizational path, diverging from that of Europe.

Developments in the coming months will determine world politics for many years ahead, and the echoes of the latest events will be heard not only by the present, but also by future generations.