International Affairs No. 2, 2021 – Table of Contents

Moscow, February 10, 2021

COLLEAGUES, FRIENDS, …

Key words: Russia, UN, human rights protection, HRC, law-enforcement agencies.

RUSSIA has always considered protecting and promoting human rights to be the cornerstone of a truly democratic, just and harmonious society. …

Key words: coronavirus pandemic, IMF, World Bank, recession, global economy.

THE STATE of the global economy even before the coronavirus pandemic was cause for major concern. In 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global GDP and global trade recorded their lowest growth of the decade (2.9% and 0.3%, respectively). Global debt continued to increase, with sovereign debt and budget deficit levels in many countries near critical. …

Key Words: Arctic, region, international relations, ecology, north, territory, cooperation.

THE FIRST mentions of the Arctic date back to the 4th century BC, during the development of sea navigation.¹ The origins of the word “Arctic” stem from the Greek “ἀρκτικός” (pronounced “arktikos” and meaning “northern”) and άρκτος (“bear,” associated with the constellation Ursa Major). It refers to the lands located under this constellation. This physical and geographical region of the Earth, with climatic conditions that make it difficult to sustain life, is an integral part of the surface of the globe. Adjacent to the North Pole, it encompasses the circumpolar expanse whose inner radius includes the seas of the Arctic Ocean, its islands and archipelagos, as well as coastal territories of the surrounding three continents: Europe, Asia and North America. …

Key words: digital diplomacy, COVID-19, digital technologies.

THE YEAR 2020 was significant in terms of the development of digital diplomacy. This is due to two factors. …

Key words: Council of Europe, European Convention on Human Rights, EU, European Court on Human Rights.

“The Council of Europe is, to be sure, the laboratory in which experiments in European co-operation are conducted.” …

Keywords: Council of Europe, PACE, ECHR, CoE conventions, bilateral agreements between Russia and CoE.

THIS YEAR we are celebrating the quarter-century anniversary of Russia’s membership of the Council of Europe (CoE). Twenty-five years is a good time to take stock of the results and make plans based on those results. …

Key words: PACE, Council of Europe, interparliamentary cooperation, dialogue, institutional crisis, Russia, return, new agenda, solidarity, 75th anniversary of Victory.

Heading the Parliamentary Delegation …

Key words: Russian commissioner for human rights, Council of Europe, European Convention on Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights, human rights, institution of ombudsman, national human rights organizations, pandemic.

TODAY, we can hardly overestimate the role of integration communities in strengthening the safeguards of human rights and freedoms that are constantly being tested, challenged and threatened in our turbulent world. The Council of Europe, established on May 5, 1949, in response to the disastrous shocks of World War Two caused primarily by massive and cynical violations and even destruction of human rights, plays the leading role on the European continent. It remains the most respected international entity for setting standards for the rule of law, human rights, democratic development and cultural interaction. …

Key words: Russia, Council of Europe, legal and judicial cooperation.

FEBRUARY 28, 2021, marks a quarter century since our country joined the Council of Europe. This anniversary date is a grand opportunity to evaluate our experience and determine further priorities for cooperation. …

Key words: Baltic, Russia, United States, NATO, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, military buildup, regional security.

THE FUNDAMENTAL economic, political and medical challenges before us are universally recognized. Discussion is centered around a second question – namely: How are these challenges effecting global and European agendas? With respect to the East European security agenda, there has been practically no effect. In 2021, the United States and NATO will step up their military activity in Poland and what are known as the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and try to create as much trouble as possible for Russia and Belarus. Russia will be the hypothetical adversary in the planned Defender-Europe 21 command post exercise, as in preceding Defender-Europe exercises. This was common knowledge for a long time, but everybody avoided discussing it publicly. That has changed. For example, the Jamestown Foundation¹ is no longer wondering whether attacking Russia and Belarus is advisable but is deliberating about what tactics to use in such an attack – for instance, what would be the quickest way to the “Smolensk Gate” [20]. …

Key words: conflict in Karabakh, Nikol Pashinyan, ARF-D, PAP, RPA, Homeland Party, Robert Kocharyan.

ON NOVEMBER 9, 2020, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed the Statement on a Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.¹ …

Key words: energy diplomacy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Russian-Saudi energy relations, OPEC Plus, world oil market, balance of interests.

THE CURRENT RELEVANCE of the topic of Russia’s “energy relations” with major energy-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is largely determined by the threat of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis. Compromise and the ability to coordinate efforts to ensure energy security are distinctive aspects of these relations. …

Key words: Ukraine, Europe, Russia, US, Normandy Format.

December 10, 2020 …

Keywords: Eurasian Arc of Instability, security, rivalry, geopolitical status, integration.

ON NOVEMBER 27-28, 2020, St. Petersburg University’s Ho Chi Minh Institute held its 11th international academic conference in the series “Eurasian Arc of Instability and Security Problems from East Asia to North Africa.” The conference, which was an online event, had an extension to its title – “Preliminary Results of 2020.” …

Key words: SCO, Eurasia, security, stability.

I HAVE studied the conference materials with great interest. The topic is especially important and relevant, considering that Russia has just concluded its year-long presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). …

Key words: CSTO PA, Greater Eurasia, regional security, model lawmaking.

OVER the past several decades, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has evolved as an internationally recognized instrument of ensuring regional security and the collective protection of allied states against external aggression. …

Key words: Poland, Northern Group of Forces, NATO military exercises.

“BUT CAN YOU please wear your army uniform? That’s essential,” a Polish acquaintance of mine said when inviting me to a Sunday family lunch. This happened nearly half a century ago in the quaint Polish town of Szczecinek. Before World War II, it had been the quaint German town of Neustettin. …

Key words: international information security, Internet, United Nations (UN), Group of Governmental Experts on advancing responsible state behavior in cyberspace in the context of international security (GGE), information and communication technologies (ICTs).

INFORMATION and communication technologies (ICTs) provide humankind with unprecedented opportunities. Mass communication technologies, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, big data, e-government, digital medicine, and cryptocurrencies have become part and parcel of our life. …

Key words: white hat hackers, information and communication technologies, cybersecurity.

THE EVENTS of 2019 and 2020 have turned everything upside down and transported us to a radically different reality. This is one of those instances where we have all said, in one form or another: “Life will never be the same again.” It is true. The pandemic continues to “reshape” human consciousness, forming a conceptually new paradigm of the world order, unequivocally immersing an increasing number of familiar processes in the digital space. Whereas before ICTs were mainly considered a luxury, a privilege and a means to increase comfort, today they have become the one and only way to maintain habitual life processes. …

Key words: information and communications technologies (ICTs), cybercrime, information security.

THE DIGITAL revolution that began a few decades ago provides tremendous development opportunities to nations, but also creates more opportunities for criminals and makes crime more complex and sophisticated. …

Key words: information security, international cooperation, personal data.

IN RUSSIA, extremely close attention is paid to the processing of personal data. Without clearly regulated data processing principles and information security mechanisms capable of fending off present-day threats, it is impossible to achieve the desired level of trust and security when using information and communication technologies (ICTs). …

Key words: Russia, global Internet, BRICS, Group of Seven (G7).

THIS ARTICLE aims to show what place Russia occupies in the global online information space among the leading countries and suggests ways to expand and deepen the study of Russia’s image in the international community – research that is highly relevant in the current global situation. We will start with a general look at Russian-language scholarly literature on the subject and then follow principal trends in its study. Then we will point out which parts of this very complex scholarly field remain poorly explored, formulate new methods of research, and present the findings of a pilot project based on these methods. This study was conducted in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. …

ON FEBRUARY 4-5, 2021, the 23rd National Information Security Forum (InfoSec Forum 2021) took place in Moscow to discuss the key information security challenges facing Russia. The forum brings together leading national experts, representatives of federal and regional governing bodies, scientific communities and business circles.

This large-scale annual event is traditionally organized by the Russian State Duma Security and Anticorruption Committee and the Office of the Russian Security Council. …

Key words: bilateral contacts, cultural exchange, UN GA Resolution 74/274.

RUSSIA is a country that generates great interest in Mexico. There is a deep appreciation for its culture and history, as well as recognition of its vast contributions to science, and its weight in the international system. …

Key words: Russia, Zimbabwe, Russia, diplomatic relations.

TODAY marks the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Zimbabwe and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the predecessor state of the Russian Federation, on February 18, 1981. …

Key words: USSR Diplomatic mission in Kabul, Ambassador K.A. Mikhailov, Third Reich, Abwehr, Mohammad Hashim Khan, Bhagat Ram, INRC, Subhas Chandra Bose, agents of the Axis Powers.

SOVIET and British leaders were informed by their intelligence services about Directive No. 41 that Hitler had signed on April 5, 1942. The directive confirmed that the Wehrmacht was ready to launch a large-scale offensive against the Red Army at the Soviet-German front in spring and summer of 1942: “Our aim is to wipe out the Soviets’ remaining defense potential, and to cut them off, as far as possible, from their most important centers of war industry.”¹ …

TWO Soviet diplomatic couriers were riding Moscow-Riga train No. 2220. One of them was Theodor Yanovich Nette, to whom Vladimir Mayakovsky dedicated his well-known poem “To Comrade Nette – the Steamship and the Man.” The other courier was Johann Adamovich Makhmastal.

At 5:30 a.m. on February 5, 1926, at the last way-stop, the conductor made his way through the train carriage, announcing that the train would soon be arriving in Riga. Suddenly, passengers heard a startled shout: The conductor was running along the corridor with his arms raised. He was followed by several men wearing black masks and holding guns. …

Key words: Clementine Churchill, Aid to Russia Fund, diplomacy, compassion.

THE PUBLIC, humanitarian and, to a large extent, diplomatic activity of Winston Churchill’s wife, Clementine, is inextricably tied with the Soviet Union and its struggle against German fascism. This dynamic and selfless effort in support of our country during those difficult years of the war fully revealed to the entire world not only a strong business acumen, exceptional organizing abilities and leadership, but the highest standard of this wonderful woman’s personal qualities. …

Key Words: 60 years of Dartmouth Conferences, Russian-American relations, citizen diplomacy.

AMID the coronavirus pandemic and an unprecedented presidential campaign in the US, the 60th anniversary of the Russian-American Dartmouth Conference went unnoticed. Yet, it would seem that this time-tested tool of citizen diplomacy, or “Track II diplomacy,” is needed now more than ever in the past 30 years. The book Breaking Barriers in United States-Russia Relations: The Power and Promise of Citizen Diplomacy* – written by Philip Stewart, the American co-chair of the Dartmouth Conference, and published in Russian by Aspect Press – is filling this gap. The book is dedicated to Harold Saunders, a former US Assistant Secretary of State instrumental in advancing civil diplomacy, and Yevgeny Primakov, who himself first attended the Dartmouth Conference in 1971 and with whose blessing the event resumed in 2014, after a 24-year hiatus. …

Key words: populism, Trumpism, Trump Phenomenon monograph.

HAVING barely recovered from the shock caused by the election of a nondemocratic candidate as the 45th US president, the Russian academic and expert community, where only avowed “optimists” had bet on a Trump victory, began searching for reasons and explanations for what had just happened. During Donald Trump’s term in the White House, a record number of scholarly and quasi-scholarly works were published in Russian. However, most of them were narrowly focused on specific aspects of US affairs, and American domestic and foreign policy, or were separate chapters on the US in studies that lacked regional focus. …

Key words: leading Russian Korean experts, North Korea, DPRK, South Korea, Kim Jong-un, Moon Jae-in, byungjin policy, nuclear problem, northern territories, dialogue and cooperation between North and South.

TO ANSWER that question, one first needs to know what has been happening in that region for at least the past 15 years, and preferably to understand why. …

Key words: Belarus, Great Patriotic War (GPW), patriotism, Russia, partisans.

IN 2019, as I was preparing to represent the Russian Embassy at a major and very important event with our compatriots in Minsk, I read a book that had just been released by Andrey Gerashchenko, a Belarusian writer, journalist, historian and chairman of the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots’ Organizations in Belarus. Regrettably, the book, titled Opalyonnaya voinoi Belorussia [War-Scorched Belarus], had a very small print run. Its author, who participated in the upcoming event, wanted to use the opportunity to bring the book to the attention of his colleagues, associates and veterans of the Great Patriotic War (GPW) who were invited to the meeting, as well as to a wider circle of readers, primarily young people. …