Constructive destruction is not aggressive. Russia maintains it isn’t going to attack anyone or blow them up. It simply doesn’t need to. The outside world provides Russia with more and more geopolitical opportunities for medium-term development as it is.
Long before the talks began, you predicted that “the partners in the West will try to drag their heels on the Russian demands.” Looks like that is exactly what is happening.
The system of economic, political, and cultural dominance of the West reached its peak in the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed. But in the mid-2000s, a stunningly fast decline began.
Millions of pages have been written about the history and theory of the Cold War. I will give you one more interpretation. The Cold War is one of the types of international competition for resources (territory, population, and economic potential per se) that has accompanied humanity throughout its history.
Over the last six months, most commentators have finally stopped saying that the relationship between Russia and the United States is “at its worst since the end of the Cold War” and begun recognizing the obvious: a new Cold War is unfolding.
We do not have a positive ideology for ourselves, no new Russian idea. But without such ideas all great powers collapse or cease to be great. The world is strewn with their graves and ruins.
The only bright spot in this forecast is the possible partial removal of parasitic warts from the body of modern societies and economies―deflation of financial and informational bubbles that increasingly often served as a substitute for the real economy and life.
Russia had to pay for the success of course, but the price was meagre compared to what it had to pay for maintaining its security and ability to play a sovereign role in determining world politics.
A new interview with S.A. Karaganov “Let’s get it straight ― a Patriotic War is on” was originally published on the website of the weekly "Profil" on September 26, 2022 . The translation is attached.
Scientific Head, School of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University Honorary Chairman, Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy Interview for LIMES.