Looking for your way
The formation of an independent Russian geopolitics continues, but very inconsistently and in half measures
The fall of the USSR and the socialist bloc marked a change in the global configuration from bipolar to unipolar, built according to the center-periphery scheme. The center was identified with the victorious Western bloc led by the United States, the periphery - the rest of the country. Having secured global supremacy, the West began to modernize the world in its own interests. However, this did not suit everyone. As a result, the global geopolitical confrontation on an ideological basis was replaced by the confrontation of civilizations: the western one, on the one hand, and the Islamic, Orthodox, and Confucian (Chinese), on the other. Under these conditions, the formation of the geopolitical line of Russia, the successor of the Soviet Union.
The first modern world geopolitical processes comprehended Samuel Huntington in his work "The Clash of Civilizations", in which he predicted the inevitability of a collision of Western civilization with the rest.
Today we can identify a number of the most important factors determining the direction of development of world geopolitics:
the intensive formation of a single world power system in the conditions of domination of the bloc of countries of Western civilization led by the USA
Intensive population growth in the context of increasing consumption of Western civilization with the approach to the critical threshold of environmental pressure on the entire sphere of the Earth’s habitat;
the global industrial raw material imbalance, consisting in the fact that the largest industrial potential is concentrated in the USA, the states of Europe and Japan, whereas the main energy and raw materials resources are concentrated in Russia and the third world countries;
the emergence on the world stage of independent geopolitical subjects of a transnational character.
Already at the beginning of the 90 of the last century, it became clear to the world's leading analysts that the effect of these factors would give rise to a global crisis, the leading contradiction of which would be between the growth of production and consumption and the available resources necessary for development, the capabilities of the Earth’s ecosystem.
Russian geopolitics 90-x
Russia as a geopolitical subject is the basis of Eurasia, which geographically, landscape, linguistically, climatically, culturally and religiously and ideologically unites the Eurasian West and East.
The enormous intellectual potential and geographical position of the “Eurasian Center”, as well as the considerable military potential, questioned the longevity of the monopolar model without eliminating our country as a subject of geopolitics. Therefore, having crushed the socialist bloc and the USSR, the leaders of the Western world set themselves the task of removing Russia from the political arena.
Under the dominance of frank Westernizers, compradors, agents of influence and simply agents of Western intelligence services who relied on a whole network of American advisers in the Russian political elite of that time, it was possible to do this without the use of NATO forces following the model of the collapse of the USSR.
The darkest in stories Russia dashing 90-s. The country's political elite was under complete American control. Minor statist forces, represented mainly by immigrants from the armed forces and special services, have not played a significant role yet. The people were disoriented and disorganized. The surviving and newly created communist, socialist and nationalist parties and movements, despite the mass demonstrations, did not significantly influence the policy of the authorities.
In domestic policy, the Russian government under the slogans of liberalization and democratization, the introduction of market relations and the elimination of monopolism actually carried out the defeat of the country.
Production chains collapsed, the most important enterprises of high-tech industry were destroyed by transferring to private hands, the army collapsed and special services were dispersed, secrets of which were passed on to western states, the production of military equipment and the development of new designs was eliminated, scientific and technical schools were eliminated, leading scientific institutions engaged in the most advanced research, a number of leading scientists was simply destroyed.
The largest enterprises of the oil and gas complex and transport infrastructure were in the hands of domestic compradors and foreign companies.
Under these conditions, Russian geopolitics, conducted under the direct control of American intelligence services, has been reduced to total surrender in all areas.
Outside the post-Soviet space, the leadership of Russia refused to support and interact with virtually all traditional allies of the USSR, leaving these territories to the United States. Here, Moscow was pursuing an openly anti-Russian policy, blocking all integration projects, in particular, the project of Eurasian integration of President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, launched in 1994, while supporting pro-Western regimes in the former Soviet republics.
The Russian authorities also indulged in separatism on the territory of Russia itself.
However, despite all the efforts of foreign intelligence services and home-grown compradors, huge losses in all spheres failed to ruin the state.
The main reason for this failure was hidden resistance at lower levels of the power hierarchy, protests of the population and the activities of a small number of patriotic people in the Russian elite.
Geopolitics of Putin's Russia
The coming to power in 2000, Vladimir Putin, marked the new stage of Russian geopolitics. The basis of his team was largely made up of people from the special services and other law enforcement agencies, who were able to significantly increase the influence of state-oriented forces in the domestic political elite while simultaneously removing from power the comprador pro-Western groups.
The failure of military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the liberation of South American countries from American hegemony, particularly thanks to Hugo Chavez’s brightest policy, as well as the failure of the Arab Spring project, played a significant role in weakening Western, primarily American, influence in Russia. North Africa. It became clear that Western civilization is far from omnipotent.
All this was a prerequisite for a gradual departure from the destructive policies of previous years. It was possible to strengthen the shattered territorial unity of Russia, including with the use of military measures. The most odious oligarchs were expelled from the political and economic life of the country, their assets were nationalized.
Found some support for integration processes in the post-Soviet space. The integration structures have earned - the Eurasian Economic Community, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Common Economic Space within the framework of the Customs Union.
There has been a departure from the subordination of American dictate in the field of global geopolitics.
In fact, Russia began to cautiously return to the principles of Soviet doctrine, but on a different conceptual and ideological basis.
Moscow began to pursue a unified state policy in the field of energy trade, which turned the country into an influential energy power capable of influencing the economic processes in its neighboring regions of Europe and Asia.
The most important instrument of geopolitical influence of the Russian Federation has become a network of gas and oil pipelines created on a single plan.
Russia began to openly condemn the practice of double standards, American hegemony and a unipolar world. So, US aggression against Iraq in the 2003 year was severely condemned.
The restoration of destroyed relations with the traditional allies of the USSR, including China, has begun.
The largest successful geopolitical projects of Moscow during this period were the creation of:
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which united in the economic union the Eurasian space from Belorussia to China;
the BRICS bloc - the economic union of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which in economic terms actually cut the American “anaconda loop”, breaking a serious gap in the system of US influence zones covering Russia.
Regarding the appearance of the future world, the Russian leadership proclaimed a commitment to the idea of multipolarity and cooperation with all forces interested in opposing American hegemony.
At the same time, the significant influence of the liberal-Westernist forces in the political establishment of Russia that remained at that time made its geopolitics dual.
Along with steps to revive Russian influence in the world, actions were taken in the opposite direction. During this period, Moscow abandoned its military presence in Cuba and in Vietnam.
Recoil
Signs of a return to the disastrous practice of 90-x appeared during the period of their tenure as President of the country Dmitry Medvedev. It was then that the most destructive blow in the modern history of Russia to the most important instruments of Russian geopolitics - the Armed Forces and the defense industry complex - occurred.
The team of former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, within the framework of the reform he had prepared, took such steps that the Russian authorities could not solve even in the dashing 90.
The commercialization of the army by attracting private structures to support the activities of the troops was accompanied by the actual defeat of the logistics system.
Adoption of weapons and military equipment (IWT) of foreign production, making the country dependent on their manufacturers, was accompanied by a drastic reduction in purchases of domestic IWT, heightened conflict between the Defense Ministry and the defense industry. At the same time, some samples of foreign technology were inferior to domestic ones in terms of performance characteristics, and for others, in particular, the Mistral-type UDC, based on the tasks of ensuring the country's military security, there was no place at all in the structure of the Armed Forces. The impression was that the Russian Armed Forces purposefully prepared for military operations as part of the NATO groupings of troops.
During this period, Moscow did not prevent military aggression against Libya, refused, under foreign pressure, to supply C-300 air defense systems to Iran. These steps not only dealt a serious blow to geopolitical interests, but also caused considerable damage to the economic interests of our country. Only in Libya, our campaigns, according to various estimates, lost up to 20 billions of dollars.
Extremely dangerous geopolitical step of this time, carrying significant threats to the economic security of the country, was Russia's accession to the WTO.
Neo-Putin geopolitics
Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency contributed to restoring the line for Russia to pursue an independent geopolitical line. This is in the interests of Russian large businesses operating in the high-tech industry and the domestic bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, the tectonic shifts in geopolitics associated with the shift of the center of gravity of the world economy to the Asia-Pacific region, the loss of their dominance by the Western countries, the leading positions of China, India and Brazil, as well as the ongoing global crisis generated by Western civilization, lack of funds able to overcome current difficulties, suggest the inevitability of a serious reorganization of the geopolitical picture of the world, coupled with the threat of large-scale military conflicts.
Under these conditions, control over Russia is a determining factor in the process of restoring and maintaining Western domination. The coming to power in our country of the pro-Western election leader 2012 was crucial for the United States and its allies. The victory of Vladimir Putin was a heavy defeat for the liberal-Westernist forces in Russia, which seriously weakened their influence on Russian geopolitics.
The third presidential mandate, the weakening of the West’s position in the world, the growing influence of the new centers of power, primarily China, India and Brazil, the strengthening of their own positions in the political field of Russia, and the intensifying struggle between various transnational clans created favorable conditions for more radical actions of Putin’s team domestically and internationally.
In the interest of weakening the positions of Western liberals and compradors, the Russian authorities took unprecedented measures in the last 25 years: laws were passed prohibiting government officials and their immediate relatives from having foreign assets that obligate NGOs engaged in political activities and having funding from foreign sources to register as foreign agents.
The largest geopolitical breakthrough was the creation of a Common Economic Space within the framework of the Customs Union consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which, covering more than 85 percent of the territory of the former USSR, outlined guidelines for the future Eurasian Union.
In geopolitics confirmed the desire to build a multipolar world. Judging by the practical steps of the Russian leadership, the priorities in this area remain the further integration of the post-Soviet space on the basis of existing projects such as the CSTO and EurAsEC, the expansion of economic and political interaction within the framework of the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The priority vectors of Russian geopolitics are:
Western, focused on the development of equal relations with the countries of Europe and the United States in order to prevent slipping into a new cold war;
southern, encompassing the Caucasus, the Middle East, North Africa, where Moscow seeks to normalize the military-political situation, stop military conflicts, primarily Syrian, and restore mutually beneficial economic and political interstate relations;
South American, where Russian interests consist in the development of mutually beneficial economic relations with the leading countries of the region;
Eastern, most important for Russia, in which it is important for our country to preserve the existing and, if possible, strengthen the level of interaction with China, India, Vietnam and two Korean states, as well as normalize relations with Japan.
Steps are being taken to restore Russia's naval presence in key areas of the oceans. The operational connection of the Russian Navy is being recreated in the Mediterranean. The Cam Ranh naval base is being revived in Vietnam.
And although the level of vulnerability of the Russian political elite to Western pressure is large enough, on the whole, it can be stated that in the sphere of geopolitics, the course towards achieving a certain measure of independence from Western control continues, but very inconsistently, with half-measures.
In the conditions of a developing global crisis, these steps are not enough to revive the Russian Federation and ensure its security. A clearly coordinated system of measures in domestic and foreign policy for the implementation and protection of Russian geopolitical interests is needed.
The first step in this direction should be the development and adoption at the state level of a system of clearly defined geopolitical interests of Russia, as well as strategies for their achievement and protection.
The fall of the USSR and the socialist bloc marked a change in the global configuration from bipolar to unipolar, built according to the center-periphery scheme. The center was identified with the victorious Western bloc led by the United States, the periphery - the rest of the country. Having secured global supremacy, the West began to modernize the world in its own interests. However, this did not suit everyone. As a result, the global geopolitical confrontation on an ideological basis was replaced by the confrontation of civilizations: the western one, on the one hand, and the Islamic, Orthodox, and Confucian (Chinese), on the other. Under these conditions, the formation of the geopolitical line of Russia, the successor of the Soviet Union.
The first modern world geopolitical processes comprehended Samuel Huntington in his work "The Clash of Civilizations", in which he predicted the inevitability of a collision of Western civilization with the rest.
Today we can identify a number of the most important factors determining the direction of development of world geopolitics:
Already at the beginning of the 90 of the last century, it became clear to the world's leading analysts that the effect of these factors would give rise to a global crisis, the leading contradiction of which would be between the growth of production and consumption and the available resources necessary for development, the capabilities of the Earth’s ecosystem.
Russian geopolitics 90-x
Russia as a geopolitical subject is the basis of Eurasia, which geographically, landscape, linguistically, climatically, culturally and religiously and ideologically unites the Eurasian West and East.
The enormous intellectual potential and geographical position of the “Eurasian Center”, as well as the considerable military potential, questioned the longevity of the monopolar model without eliminating our country as a subject of geopolitics. Therefore, having crushed the socialist bloc and the USSR, the leaders of the Western world set themselves the task of removing Russia from the political arena.Under the dominance of frank Westernizers, compradors, agents of influence and simply agents of Western intelligence services who relied on a whole network of American advisers in the Russian political elite of that time, it was possible to do this without the use of NATO forces following the model of the collapse of the USSR.
The darkest in stories Russia dashing 90-s. The country's political elite was under complete American control. Minor statist forces, represented mainly by immigrants from the armed forces and special services, have not played a significant role yet. The people were disoriented and disorganized. The surviving and newly created communist, socialist and nationalist parties and movements, despite the mass demonstrations, did not significantly influence the policy of the authorities.
In domestic policy, the Russian government under the slogans of liberalization and democratization, the introduction of market relations and the elimination of monopolism actually carried out the defeat of the country.
Production chains collapsed, the most important enterprises of high-tech industry were destroyed by transferring to private hands, the army collapsed and special services were dispersed, secrets of which were passed on to western states, the production of military equipment and the development of new designs was eliminated, scientific and technical schools were eliminated, leading scientific institutions engaged in the most advanced research, a number of leading scientists was simply destroyed.
The largest enterprises of the oil and gas complex and transport infrastructure were in the hands of domestic compradors and foreign companies.
Under these conditions, Russian geopolitics, conducted under the direct control of American intelligence services, has been reduced to total surrender in all areas.
Outside the post-Soviet space, the leadership of Russia refused to support and interact with virtually all traditional allies of the USSR, leaving these territories to the United States. Here, Moscow was pursuing an openly anti-Russian policy, blocking all integration projects, in particular, the project of Eurasian integration of President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, launched in 1994, while supporting pro-Western regimes in the former Soviet republics.
The Russian authorities also indulged in separatism on the territory of Russia itself.
However, despite all the efforts of foreign intelligence services and home-grown compradors, huge losses in all spheres failed to ruin the state.
The main reason for this failure was hidden resistance at lower levels of the power hierarchy, protests of the population and the activities of a small number of patriotic people in the Russian elite.
Geopolitics of Putin's Russia
The coming to power in 2000, Vladimir Putin, marked the new stage of Russian geopolitics. The basis of his team was largely made up of people from the special services and other law enforcement agencies, who were able to significantly increase the influence of state-oriented forces in the domestic political elite while simultaneously removing from power the comprador pro-Western groups.
The failure of military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the liberation of South American countries from American hegemony, particularly thanks to Hugo Chavez’s brightest policy, as well as the failure of the Arab Spring project, played a significant role in weakening Western, primarily American, influence in Russia. North Africa. It became clear that Western civilization is far from omnipotent.All this was a prerequisite for a gradual departure from the destructive policies of previous years. It was possible to strengthen the shattered territorial unity of Russia, including with the use of military measures. The most odious oligarchs were expelled from the political and economic life of the country, their assets were nationalized.
Found some support for integration processes in the post-Soviet space. The integration structures have earned - the Eurasian Economic Community, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Common Economic Space within the framework of the Customs Union.
There has been a departure from the subordination of American dictate in the field of global geopolitics.
In fact, Russia began to cautiously return to the principles of Soviet doctrine, but on a different conceptual and ideological basis.
Moscow began to pursue a unified state policy in the field of energy trade, which turned the country into an influential energy power capable of influencing the economic processes in its neighboring regions of Europe and Asia.
The most important instrument of geopolitical influence of the Russian Federation has become a network of gas and oil pipelines created on a single plan.
Russia began to openly condemn the practice of double standards, American hegemony and a unipolar world. So, US aggression against Iraq in the 2003 year was severely condemned.
The restoration of destroyed relations with the traditional allies of the USSR, including China, has begun.
The largest successful geopolitical projects of Moscow during this period were the creation of:
Regarding the appearance of the future world, the Russian leadership proclaimed a commitment to the idea of multipolarity and cooperation with all forces interested in opposing American hegemony.
At the same time, the significant influence of the liberal-Westernist forces in the political establishment of Russia that remained at that time made its geopolitics dual.
Along with steps to revive Russian influence in the world, actions were taken in the opposite direction. During this period, Moscow abandoned its military presence in Cuba and in Vietnam.
Recoil
Signs of a return to the disastrous practice of 90-x appeared during the period of their tenure as President of the country Dmitry Medvedev. It was then that the most destructive blow in the modern history of Russia to the most important instruments of Russian geopolitics - the Armed Forces and the defense industry complex - occurred.
The team of former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, within the framework of the reform he had prepared, took such steps that the Russian authorities could not solve even in the dashing 90.
The commercialization of the army by attracting private structures to support the activities of the troops was accompanied by the actual defeat of the logistics system.
Adoption of weapons and military equipment (IWT) of foreign production, making the country dependent on their manufacturers, was accompanied by a drastic reduction in purchases of domestic IWT, heightened conflict between the Defense Ministry and the defense industry. At the same time, some samples of foreign technology were inferior to domestic ones in terms of performance characteristics, and for others, in particular, the Mistral-type UDC, based on the tasks of ensuring the country's military security, there was no place at all in the structure of the Armed Forces. The impression was that the Russian Armed Forces purposefully prepared for military operations as part of the NATO groupings of troops.
During this period, Moscow did not prevent military aggression against Libya, refused, under foreign pressure, to supply C-300 air defense systems to Iran. These steps not only dealt a serious blow to geopolitical interests, but also caused considerable damage to the economic interests of our country. Only in Libya, our campaigns, according to various estimates, lost up to 20 billions of dollars.
Extremely dangerous geopolitical step of this time, carrying significant threats to the economic security of the country, was Russia's accession to the WTO.
Neo-Putin geopolitics
Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency contributed to restoring the line for Russia to pursue an independent geopolitical line. This is in the interests of Russian large businesses operating in the high-tech industry and the domestic bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, the tectonic shifts in geopolitics associated with the shift of the center of gravity of the world economy to the Asia-Pacific region, the loss of their dominance by the Western countries, the leading positions of China, India and Brazil, as well as the ongoing global crisis generated by Western civilization, lack of funds able to overcome current difficulties, suggest the inevitability of a serious reorganization of the geopolitical picture of the world, coupled with the threat of large-scale military conflicts.
Under these conditions, control over Russia is a determining factor in the process of restoring and maintaining Western domination. The coming to power in our country of the pro-Western election leader 2012 was crucial for the United States and its allies. The victory of Vladimir Putin was a heavy defeat for the liberal-Westernist forces in Russia, which seriously weakened their influence on Russian geopolitics.
The third presidential mandate, the weakening of the West’s position in the world, the growing influence of the new centers of power, primarily China, India and Brazil, the strengthening of their own positions in the political field of Russia, and the intensifying struggle between various transnational clans created favorable conditions for more radical actions of Putin’s team domestically and internationally.
In the interest of weakening the positions of Western liberals and compradors, the Russian authorities took unprecedented measures in the last 25 years: laws were passed prohibiting government officials and their immediate relatives from having foreign assets that obligate NGOs engaged in political activities and having funding from foreign sources to register as foreign agents.
The largest geopolitical breakthrough was the creation of a Common Economic Space within the framework of the Customs Union consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which, covering more than 85 percent of the territory of the former USSR, outlined guidelines for the future Eurasian Union.
In geopolitics confirmed the desire to build a multipolar world. Judging by the practical steps of the Russian leadership, the priorities in this area remain the further integration of the post-Soviet space on the basis of existing projects such as the CSTO and EurAsEC, the expansion of economic and political interaction within the framework of the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The priority vectors of Russian geopolitics are:
Steps are being taken to restore Russia's naval presence in key areas of the oceans. The operational connection of the Russian Navy is being recreated in the Mediterranean. The Cam Ranh naval base is being revived in Vietnam.
And although the level of vulnerability of the Russian political elite to Western pressure is large enough, on the whole, it can be stated that in the sphere of geopolitics, the course towards achieving a certain measure of independence from Western control continues, but very inconsistently, with half-measures.
In the conditions of a developing global crisis, these steps are not enough to revive the Russian Federation and ensure its security. A clearly coordinated system of measures in domestic and foreign policy for the implementation and protection of Russian geopolitical interests is needed.
The first step in this direction should be the development and adoption at the state level of a system of clearly defined geopolitical interests of Russia, as well as strategies for their achievement and protection.
Information