It must be said, and appropriately recognised, that President Putin, perhaps the most prominent world leader of the current age, is and has been a man of his times. Without the early life of Mr Putin, his rise to prominence and his vision and personal strength to shape that vision as the leader of the Russian nation aided by a very talented team of government officials, and being perhaps the most recognised national leader in the world for exactly that, Russia would not be well-placed today as a leading global nation.
But, if you can refocus for a moment, it is inevitable that this position will not last forever. I am not going to say that it will be over soon, necessarily, or that without him Russia will collapse without a strong vision on which to continue to mold itself. But, when that much respected man’s life has run its course, or he feels that his effectiveness is subsiding and decides to pass the reins to someone else (may he be gifted to reach such a moment of decision, and be able to long enjoy the fruits of his achievements and the continued reverence of the Russian peoples), can Russia’s next step be seen as a guarantee of repeated success? Is there a plan to that effect?
Well, it appears there is, whether just in the mind of one prominent Russian or more widely spread among the current officiating elite members of government. It has been recently highlighted by one of those number, as published by RT…
‘Sergey Karaganov: Europe is fading. We must embrace a new elite for a new Russia’ – RT – By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow. Karaganov is also said to be a friend and advisor to the President.
Allow me to summarise.
When Russia finally finishes off its plan for stabilising whatever is left of Ukraine in a few months, at the same time corralling and taming western nation’s excesses and attitudes (they will have to first come to some realisation that their position is hopeless, their power base fragmented or destroyed, and the dire need to somehow rescue their own situations to prevent the ‘garden’ of Europe becoming the ‘jungle’ of the world – if that is even possible), Russia will need to look to its own situation as part of the emerging global multilateral order which is set to replace that of the previous dark times of unilateral ‘US’ western imperialism which has allowed Europe to maintain the mistaken and forlorn hope of enjoying ‘partner’ status with their US overlords. All of those hopes may subside for a while as the new paradigm gets under way, but such losses of prestige do not easily die. Times of peace may not be long-lasting.
There is no doubt that Russia has turned its back on and cut its bridges to the fallen west. Instead, fostering and building trade and cultural ties to the larger world more generally known as the Global South or more appropriately the ‘Global Majority’. So neglected and abused by their prior overlords, but perceived more as equal partners with the more powerful members of that non-west reorganisation of world affairs.
How is Russia placed to maintain its own standing within that world community? Well, quite handsomely it seems. They have well conceived plans, as outlined in the RT article shared above. Those plans include a ‘return to ourselves’ or as stated there: “The time has come to “return to ourselves” – to our homeland and the origins of our statehood. That homeland is Siberia.“. The remaining most resource enriched and least developed vast area in the world.
The rest, which is perhaps the most important part, I will leave for you to read, since I am busy at the moment with my own issues. But there is, to note, nothing further East than Siberia. So Russia’s direction of external fraternisation and trade must go South, not East. To the lands of the Global Majority. Undertaking a vast enterprise for mutual benefit and peaceful endeavours of the most exciting kind, which lays within the future proceedings of mankind. Forget Mars. There is no future for man there.
Conclusions are always the important part of any writing, so I will leave you with the final section of the article…
That final sentence, “Russia must lead it,” at first drew concern in my mind. It could be taken as a nationalistic viewpoint. But I think there is no supremacism intended. He does also say, within the main body of the article, “This elite, and the nation it leads, must see itself as builders of a “Siberian Russia” within a Greater Eurasia.”.
It seems that Russia itself must expand Eastwards to both occupy and utilise those vast lands it already owns. They being representative of man’s final frontier.
Not Something Else 