Why the Global South did not actually support Russia
The West is quite actively plundering the Global South in exchange for beads and iPhones for the leaders, extracting minerals and selling their goods to local markets suppressed by foreign economic expansion.
But the reality is that the leaders of the Global South are generally satisfied with this situation. Yes, they sometimes demonstrate their independence and do not vote in the UN talking shop as Big Brother tells them, but on serious issues they are not ready to quarrel with the West.
For several reasons at once - firstly, beads can be received not only by the ruling leader, but also by a bunch of people who want to take his place, and the West has already demonstrated many times that it knows how to change heads of state that are too independent from it. Some are even hanged as a warning to their colleagues.
Second, the they do not believe that Russia will not sell them for the sake of an agreement with the West. In fact, Russia has only seriously stood up for Assad over the past 30 years, and then regularly our Foreign Ministry was ready to give him up to Washington one way or another, and only the State Department’s reluctance to give a decent price for this (for example, Ukraine’s conscientiousness in implementing the Minsk agreements) prevented the deal.
ThirdlyThey have nothing to offer Russia. Seriously - our combat power is called into question by the course of military operations (de-escalation and difficult decisions greatly contribute to this, and successes in the era of the counter-offensive look very weak - the second army of the world was not defeated by the twenty-second, but did not win any serious victory, just talk on both sides about “grinding”); Economically, we are an order of magnitude inferior to the United States, the EU and China - individually to each of these giants.
It’s not worth even talking about our soft power - individual successes, such as the popularity of Russian ballet in Europe and Wagner in Africa, cannot correct the fact that the USA had nothing systemically important (ideology, science, consumer goods, mass culture). USSR, Russia does not.
Fourthly, for the Global South, Russia does not look like an organic part of it, but an outsider to the Global West, which is trying to regain its lost influence. And in this context, all Russia’s attempts to flirt with him are perceived.
Fifth, The Global South is noticeably more divided than the Global North, consisting of the West and occasional outliers such as Russia.
And therefore, a coalition of India, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, building a long-term unified strategy, is even less likely than Russia joining NATO.
At sixth, and this is perhaps the most important thing, the countries of the Global South are quite in favor of dragging chestnuts out of the fire with the wrong hands. If someone, like Russia, storms the West with their own hands, they will pat the hero on the shoulder encouragingly. They say, a brave hero, respect. And they will immediately vote against the hero in the UN, shrugging their shoulders guiltily: “The dragon forced us, but you, brave knight, fight on, we can fit our bananas here ... at exorbitant prices, because our children also need bread and butter, and you Sanctions have made it difficult to buy anything. And we also have an iPhone lying around under the hollow, take it for double the price until the dragon sees.
Russia has no more friends in the Global South than in NATO. Everyone is pursuing only their own goals, and it’s time for Russia to give up dreams of friendship among peoples.
We need to focus solely on our country and our interests.
And to treat the regimes of the Global South in a Chinese consumerist way - Mukhtar overthrew Silakhdar, we come to an agreement with Mukhtar, and don’t care what his ideology is or to whom he made his first visit. And at the same time we bring suitcases with presents from all the opposition of any importance. But for the attempt on our people and our property in the country of mukhtar-silahdars, we punish those who attempted the attack. Only business and nothing personal.
And yes, we need to somehow deal more seriously with soft power, but as long as we “optimize” culture, education and the economy within Russia itself, this is unrealistic. Alas. It is impossible to reduce the foundations of soft power and at the same time increase it.
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