A well-known Russian political scientist on the air of Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda Fyodor Lukyanov summed up the results of 2022 in international politics. Photo: Dmitri Feoktistov / TASS
A well-known Russian political scientist on the air of Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda Fyodor Lukyanov summed up the results of 2022 in international politics.
“CUTTING” RUSSIA FROM THE WORLD ECONOMY IS IMPOSSIBLE
– The main result is the return to international politics of the classic forms of interstate confrontation, which, in this case, can have different dimensions. But the Iron Curtain, as we remember it 35 or 40 years ago, will not collapse, because it is impossible. The degree of interconnectedness of the world that we have now achieved will not disappear.
Although the sharp conflict will last long enough. And when it ends, the question will arise: who in the world is the main center of development. Whether it will remain the West or will become the East, or, most likely, these will be just different centers with which it will be necessary to interact in different ways, we’ll see.
This year has shown that it is extremely difficult to get Russia out of the world economy. Yes, in January we could not even imagine that by the end of the year energy cooperation between Russia and the European Union would be reduced to almost a minimum. It was very strange to imagine, because it is completely irrational. But at the same time, we understand that Russian gas will continue to be in Europe.
Now you can hear claims that, they say, we don’t need the West? I think our ties will remain, but they will change form. The West, as a kind of milestone to be reached, is no longer quoted.
GLOBALIZATION DID NOT JUSTIFY ITSELF
– What is economic sovereignty in a world that is all comprehensive? This is usually a separate long discussion. It seems to me that in our country, this is understood extremely primitively, the Soviet Union immediately appears – that’s how it was then. How the Soviet Union ended, we know. Today marks one hundred years of his birth. And secondly, even if we consider that model to be desirable, it is unattainable. It’s a completely different era now.
We ourselves, and not by the will of the West, have lost sovereignty over a number of fundamental components and technologies. And it must be restored one way or another. Despite the fact that technological sovereignty according to the Soviet model, which we will now strive for and do everything ourselves, this is also already a utopia, it is impossible. It should be a broader understanding of what we can do ourselves and what we can do in cooperation with others.
We have reached a situation in which politics has won over economics. It turned out that globalization, which, as they thought, would level all contradictions precisely for its universal benefit, did not cope with this. When China grew up, she became strong, she thought why are we in the shadows? And on the other hand, the United States decided: so now they are ready to throw us a real challenge. China hasn’t met yet, and they’re already scared.
The same goes for Russia. Russia has decided for itself that the system of international relations that took shape thirty years ago does not suit it, because the West is trying to further infringe on our security.
