Russia in Global Affairs

By defending their interests, Eastern European nations can contribute to the emergence of a socially-oriented and independent Europe, which is absolutely necessary for overcoming the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced in history.

As an ideological imperative built on Cultural Marxist dichotomies of oppressor and victim classes (according to sex, race, language, religion, etc.) this effort to transform all human society supplies a missionary zeal no less relevant to American officials’ and their fellow travelers’ efforts than their aspirations of global political dominion.

The atmosphere around “the Tomos and autocephaly” is no more than a means of manipulating the electorate, but the presidential team’s expectations of results were overly inflated.

The crisis triggered by the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine threatens to spill over not only to other countries but to Universal Orthodoxy and Christianity in general and even affect globalization and the world order.

Ukraine, which became the apple of geopolitical discord in 2014, is now also turning into one of the key factors behind the emerging schism in the Orthodox world. This psychologically and mentally complex factor may be employed in the geopolitical struggle where Orthodoxy, as an instrument of influence and political governance, will be used more and more often for achieving certain goals. Therefore, Orthodox church life may go beyond the narrow religious bounds and become a matter of national security.

Today, many point to a crisis of liberal democracy and fret over whether liberal democratic has enough dynamism to shine again. Why has such a promising beginning turned into such a whimpering finale? Is liberal democracy really at an end? We asked Ivan Krastev, a leading researcher at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, for his thoughts.

What does international cooperation look like during the triumph of national interests? Is it possible to realize these interests without interaction? We turned to Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, and Anatol Lieven, Professor of Georgetown University in Qatar for their insight.

But one thing is clear—we are entering an era of greater disunity, while unifying bonds between nations remain quite weak. Last time the world had a similar situation was during the interwar period. We will try to get out of this mess with minimal losses, but remember at the same time that not so long ago a similar situation ended in a world war.

We should gradually free foreign policy of rigid subordination to geopolitics and related super-involvement. Geopolitics won’t disappear, but becoming less engulfed in it is an important task for Russia to tackle.