Russia and the West: information war is a war of morals

Alexander Rahr, a global journalist, presented his book ‘Russia and The West: Zero Sum Game’ yesterday. In his work he tried to consider developments in the last 25 years after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Speaking about what has driven him to write the book, Rahr mentioned personal reasons: “My father died when he was 85 in 2006. He used to say that he went through three major global events that were crucial for his life: he was born during the Civil War in Russia; then there was the World War II; and then - 1991, the breakup of the bipolar system, the breakup of the Soviet Union. I witnessed only one of them – 1991. However, I have a feeling we are on the brink of the next major turning point, and our life which we got used to over 25 years would never be the same.”

Rahr believes that information wars will play the leading role in the upcoming crisis: “Each side claims that the other side is not backed by truth and deals with propaganda only. We are not listening to the other side anymore, we are not thinking anymore. There is an attempt to rewrite our history in front of our eyes, and it may split the nations. 70 years after the World War II, fierce debates are taking place whether it was only Hitler who started the war or Stalin participated in this too. The Ukraine’s role in the Soviet history is being rewritten by the West. These are remarkable and disturbing phenomena that are invading politics, historiography, understanding between the countries on the European continent.”

Moreover, according to Rahr, there is a war of morals underway: “They try to corner and isolate Russia through international courts. They deprive Russian athletes from participation in the Olympics. Certain political forces try to use every opportunity to deprive Russia from its right to hold the Soccer World Cup in 2018. Of course, there are sanctions. Of course, the majority of political forces realize that it is impossible to seriously weaken Russia by sanctions. Russia is not Iran, it has capacities to reorient its economy towards Asia. However, the sanctions create a certain image of the country. Of course, there is no answer to the question who will win the zero sum game – Russia or the West. But now we are close to the culmination of the developments that have to be analyzed.”