International Affairs No. 4, 2022 – Table of Contents

THIS YEAR, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) marks an important milestone: its 30th anniversary. The association was created on the wave of global changes, optimism, and hopes for the elimination of dividing lines in the interests of achieving peace, well-being, and prosperity for all.

Since then, the BSEC has successfully evolved from a purely dialogue format into a full-fledged inclusive organization in the Greater Black Sea region. For the first time in its thousand-year history, the Black Sea region has acquired “its own face” and a solid institutional framework. Over many years, the BSEC has consistently acted as a driving force in developing cooperative solutions for the benefit of sustainable development, broader economic opportunities, and the integration of the Black Sea region into global supply chains. …

Keywords: Versailles system, Yalta-Potsdam system, collapse of the USSR, Russia and the West, current international situation

THREE times in the “short” 20th century – in 1919, 1945, and 1991 – humanity had every reason to say: “The world will never again be like it was.” However, no one knew what the world would be like. …

Keywords: US, politics, interference, double standards, Americanstyle democracy, Chinese-style socialism

THE HISTORY of the US is among the shortest and most paradoxical of national histories, a combination of opposites: progressive slogans about democracy and human rights, on the one hand, and on the other – suppression of and reprisals against those who have had their own ideas about history, freedom, social equality, justice, and democracy. The history of the US is not cloudless: It is dramatic and even tragic at certain periods; in fact, this is very typical of most states. An amazed world watched the birth and development of a state that openly declared its goal to be a democratic society in which the individual would become the main agent of history with inalienable rights and freedoms. This was a revolution intended to open a new path of development to humanity. The Founding Fathers of the young state intended to elaborate constitutional principles and provisions to guarantee democracy and genuine human rights and freedoms. …

Keywords: Far Eastern Economic Center, West, China, Japan, Korea, GDP, manufacturing, trade, economic integration

RECENT statistics suggest that China, Japan, and South Korea are increasingly forming an economic unit comparable to the West. One naturally wonders whether this unit is going to become a formal association of some kind and whether such an association would counterbalance the West. There are no answers yet, but the three East Asian countries do possess the resources to form an economic center equal in scale and significance to the West. Let us tentatively label China, Japan, and South Korea the Far Eastern Economic Center (FEEC). …

Keywords: religious extremism, terrorism, Afghanistan, the Taliban, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, security, militants

THE BEGINNING of 2022 was marked by mass demonstrations in Kazakhstan, one of the largest CIS countries, connected with Russia by the closest economic and political partnership ties. The riots were eventually stopped with the support of a peacekeeping contingent of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) invited by the government of Kazakhstan. Speaking at an emergency CSTO summit meeting on January 10, 2022, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that a “real terrorist war” had occurred in the republic with the participation of “international terrorists of known origin.”¹ Yerlan Karin, appointed state secretary by Tokayev in January, also noted the participation in the Kazakhstan uprising of “members of a number of radical and extremist organizations.”² …

Keywords: UN, cyber sanctions, international information security (IIS), international law, cyber sanctions mechanism, Russian-US relations

SANCTIONS are a political tool of modern nation-states and international organizations. These are restrictive measures aimed at changing the political course of a target country, as well as impacting violators of national and international norms. UN sanctions are coercive measures to enforce compliance with the norms of international law. …

Keywords: Russia, foreign policy, concept, doctrine, international relations

IN SPRING 2008, when Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister from 2005 to 2008, was elected president and Vladimir Putin returned to his old post of prime minister, relations with the West were deteriorating. The 2008 presidential election created a so-called “tandem,” with all domestic and foreign policy tools in its hands. …

Keywords: new economic policy, Grigory Sokolnikov

ITIS a great honor for me to be here today. I am not a professional economist. But the walls of this building are associated with finding solutions to problems related to the national economy and our future development. This reminds me of my student days, when I studied at Moscow State University’s Faculty of Journalism, which was on Mokhovaya Street, while the Faculty of Economics was located in what was known as the “glass house” – the humanities building on Vorobyovy Gory. My fellow students and I were under the impression that economics was an exact science, and we could not figure out what future economists were doing in that building. …

Keywords: Russian language, cultural interaction, unity in variety, speech as a source of information, open information society, European multilingualism

BY NUMBER (258 million), Russian speakers rank eighth in the world after those who speak English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Bengali. …

Keywords: Caspian Region, Russia, convention, infrastructure, Caspian states

THE Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, signed in August 2018, opened a new stage of regional development. It specified rules related to many issues and created new possibilities for economic growth of the littoral states in navigation, development of port infrastructure, and the extraction and delivery of hydrocarbons to external markets. …

Keywords: China, Russia, China’s “soft power,” “smart power,” China’s foreign policy, international relations

IN THE first quarter of the 21st century, China’s influence in the world has risen considerably, drawing the interest of researchers from various countries. Analysts curious about the driving forces of this success agree that “China’s peaceful rise” has largely been due to the use of “soft power” tools. The 2022 Winter Olympics is a pertinent example: They offered the world an image of a successful China and a symbolic victory over the COVID-19 pandemic. …

Keywords: Tel Aviv’s maneuvers regarding the events in Ukraine. Israel’s violation of international law, obstruction of the political solution to the Middle East conflict, Israeli occupation practices and the situation of the Palestinian people, Washington’s pressure on Israel to take anti-Russian positions

CURRENT EVENTS in and around Ukraine are attracting the attention of the world community and the media in many countries. Following the trends, many political analysts and journalists have fashioned themselves into “experts” on Ukraine and Russian-Ukrainian relations. In the wake of growing anti-Russian hysteria, politicians from Western countries and their allies from other world regions have also joined in, often making rash and hasty statements for short-term effect in an effort to assert their own importance. At the same time, they care little about the effect those statements may have on finding a resolution to the situation in Ukraine or whether they could be counterproductive. …

Keywords: US, 20-year Afghan war, Vietnam War

“There are more important things than peace.” …

Keywords: private intelligence, corporate intelligence, business intelligence, competitive intelligence, strategic intelligence, outsourced intelligence

MOST PEOPLE learned about the way the state security system functions in the US only when Edward Snowden fled to Russia. It has become abundantly clear that the visible system of US intelligence services is only the tip of the iceberg, while a huge branch of private intelligence agencies is hidden below the surface. The branch fits the classical interpretation of the US military-industrial complex with its huge political weight supported by lobbying and vast capital (for more details about the interaction between big capital and US military intelligence services, see [7, 8]). Private intelligence agencies are driven by the US military, the CIA, and the NSA, and rely on contracts awarded to them by the state for developing cyber weapons and systems to monitor Internet users, and for providing data analysis and informational and technical support. …

Keywords: India, Russia, US, Russian-Indian relations, Indian-US relations, military-technical cooperation, energy security, foreign policy, international sanctions

SINCE 2014, relations between the US and its allies, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation, on the other, have deteriorated over the incorporation of Crimea into Russia, which led to sanctions being placed on Russia, as well as on third countries interacting with Russia in areas subject to sanctions. Acase in point is the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The US Senate drew attention to a deal that India had signed with Russia to buy a batch of S-400 [surface-to-air missile] systems from [state-run arms exporter] Rosoboronexport, a Russian military organization that was included on the sanctions list. In 2018, sanctions were also imposed on China under CAATSA for similar cooperation with Russia. …

Keywords: the Visegrád Four, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, EU, NATO, European integration, European strategic autonomy, EU army

GERMANY’S interaction with the Visegrád Four [the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia], or the V4, is indicative of the continuity of Berlin’s commitment to preserving the integrity of the European Union with its subregional integration formats. Accentuating commonalities and taking into account the differences between “old” and “new” Europe, the Germans act both as an intermediary in establishing compromises between the V4 and the EU and as an advocate of the interests of young EU member states, which are markets for German goods. The common denominator in Germany’s and the V4’s policies is sanctions against Moscow, although the approaches of the countries to the problem have their own nuances – for example, Berlin and Budapest differ in their approaches to energy security issues. …

May 16, 2022

WE, the members of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, in connection with the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20th anniversary of the establishment on its basis of our organization, declare that the choice we made in favor of joining efforts to maintain peace and security in the Eurasian space has passed the test of time. …

Keywords: Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Valdai Club, conference, collective security

GOOD MORNING, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen! …

Keywords: Union State of Russia and Belarus, traditions of neutrality. Belarusian opposition, Moscow and Minsk in multi-vector integration

IN THE 21st century, a certain confidence persisted for a long time that the specific nature of contemporary challenges in international relations was a deviation from the norm and was not destroying their essence. “Individual violations of the existing system, which states allow as an exception, should not necessarily be perceived as a movement toward the dismantling of the system of international law as such.”¹ However, today it is obvious that the interpretation of even the inviolable principles of international law depends on political expediency. Put more starkly, you could say that law has practically disappeared, giving way to transient rules of foreign policy expediency. Of course, in places where initially there were difficulties adapting to codified law – for example, in Eastern Europe – the understanding of neutrality and multi-vector policy turned out to be simplified and formalistic. Idealism in economic or political theory can be considered a possible approach that, under certain conditions, leads to the required academic results, but in foreign policy, it can yield negative and irreversible results. …

Keywords: Russia, Italy, bilateral relations, cooperation, economy, energy, culture, crisis, media, fake news

RELATIONS between Russia and Italy depend on several factors – their extensive historical ties, intensive economic contacts, and similar positions on certain key issues of world politics. These issues include international security and the threat of terrorism, Italy’s domestic political situation and position in the international arena, and the mutually favorable image of the two countries. …

Keywords: 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Benin

JUNE 4, 2022, marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Benin. …

Keywords: oil, Europe, renewable energy, reduction in dependence, different energy situations in Europe and the US

Armen Oganesyan, Editor-in-Chief of International Affairs: Yuri Konstantinovich [Shafranik], Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is under way. The collective West has launched a total hybrid war against Russia. The energy sanctions policy is a major component of this war. How well are we prepared for such a situation? …

Keywords: import substitution, internationalism, Russian language, sport and patriotism, information war, split of the Orthodox Church

Armen Oganesyan, Editor-in-Chief of International Affairs: Alexander Alexandrovich [Karelin], you are an experienced politician, a founding member of the United Russia party, and have extensive legislative experience. What do you believe needs to be done first of all in our new reality? …

Keywords: Great Patriotic War, Marshal Ivan Konev, red lines

Armen Oganesyan, Editor-in-Chief of International Affairs: Natalia Ivanovna [Koneva], Iwishyou the best on this wonderful holiday – Victory Day! You chair the Victory Commanders Memorial Foundation, which has united the descendants of the great Soviet military leaders. What were relations among the Soviet generals like – for example, between your father and Georgy Zhukov? …

Keywords: Afghanistan, resistance movement, Taliban

ON APRIL 18, 2022, former intelligence official, diplomat, and politician Vyacheslav Trubnikov passed away. He was a subtle analyst, a patriot, and a man with a strong sense of responsibility that is rarely encountered these days – someone who thought you should tell your boss the truth, no matter how inconvenient. He had wanted to be a mathematician, but instead became a specialist in international relations and India. Born into an ordinary Soviet family, he became a member of the elite of the former Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. In 1961, he enrolled, with an endorsement from the Komsomol, in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Soviet Foreign Ministry (today the Russian Foreign Ministry’s MGIMO University), having received top marks on all entrance exams. After graduating, he wanted to become a diplomat, but was offered an intelligence position, which he accepted. …

Keywords: Red Army, victory over Nazi Germany

IN APRIL 2022, on the 77th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Department of History and Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation prepared and published a collection titled W. Churchill and F. Roosevelt on the Role of the Red Army in the Victory over Nazi Germany. …

Keywords: Russo-Japanese War, Varyag, Korietz, evacuation, Médoc, Captain V.F. Rudnev

ONE OF THE most legendary events in the history of the Russian Navy, the memories of which are still preserved by grateful descendants, took place in the first days of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. …

Keywords: book by K.M. Dolgov, culture and politics, A.N. Kosygin. Ye.M. Primakov, Father Paisios

MEMOIRS are interesting not only for the portraits the author paints of others, but also for what they reveal about the author’s own personality. In the reviewed book My Outstanding Contemporaries: People and Meetings* [in Russian], Konstantin Dolgov, one of the best experts of his generation on the history of world and Russian philosophy and culture, displays the rare talent of a scholar and researcher who has analyzed documentary evidence of his contemporaries, as well as of an artist – a writer who has painted their bright and highly personalized portraits. His essays are also valuable because the portraits he paints of his contemporaries and their remarks and statements are like parts of a puzzle that together offer an expansive picture of the contradictory and dramatic era of the latter half of the 20th and the early 21st centuries, allowing us to take a fresh look at today’s problems. …

Keywords: I. Peyev, book, Decade of Ocean Science, Black Sea Economic Cooperation, Three Seas Initiative (Trimorye)

THE PUBLISHING house Morski Sviat (Sea World) in the Bulgarian city of Varna has published a book in Bulgarian titled To the Ocean With Love, Faith, and Hope* by Doctor of Science (Psychology) Professor Ilia Peyev. This is a scientific monograph dedicated to the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), announced by the UN on December 5, 2017. …