The opening of the 70th anniversary session of the UN General Assembly promises to be a 'Clash of the Titans', the Guardian believes. On the same day, in the space of a few hours, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani, Xi Jinping and Francois Hollande will appeal to the world from the UN rostrum.
However, as Associate Professor of the Comparative Political Science Department of MGIMO Dmitry Polikanov believes, the United Nations is a classic communication platform, where it is really convenient to gather, convey your message to most of the countries of the international community and so on, but in terms of making any fundamental decisions, this organization, unfortunately, is not at its most effective today. "It is not right to wait, that now we will solve all the global problems through the UN... On the other hand, it is clear that Putin would not go there without a reason. It seems to me that in his speech there should be two key points," the expert says.
First. It is necessary to clarify Russia's position on key issues for the international community one more time, including those key issues that emerged in the last 1.5 to 2 years. Once again talk about all of our key messages, including those he stated in Munich: about the fact that Russia wants our position to be taken into account more, and to prove that many of our actions associated with the current situation in Ukraine, and in other parts of the world, are totally understandable, and so on. It's a kind of propaganda part.
Second. The constructive part is a set of initiatives, very specific initiatives, which would reflect Russia's position on the key challenges that exist. This is migration, about which everyone is talking now, it is ISIS, and the threat of terrorism and Islamic extremism. It is drug issues, because really, as you know, the wise men of the UN recently published a report, which calls for the legalization of drugs and the opening of this market and its regulation, just like the tobacco and alcohol markets."
"There are a number of issues on which it is necessary to once again offer the international community Russian solutions to global challenges. And try to begin the process of forming a coalition through these proposals. I think that now is the right time, and in this case, we can use the anniversaries of events in order to start this conversation, including talk about new rules of the game in the international arena. Because everything that was invented there 70 years ago, a lot of it is good, a lot of it should remain, but interpretation has changed on many issues. And once again we have to start a dialogue with the international community, all of us, together, as the world, about how we interpret certain concepts. Because otherwise, if there will be a lack of communication, it is a lack of understanding and it leads to conflicts, crises, and so on," Polikanov predicts.
