By Vestnik Kavkaza
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin presented his tenth address to the Federal Council. The presidential address is thought to be the main policy document of the authorities; usually 2/3 of the address is devoted to the internal situation in the country and 1/3 – to international politics. This time the president spoke about international affairs even less.
According to Putin, today many countries reconsider moral norms and public morals; national traditions, differences between nations and cultures are being eliminated. Today it is demanded from society not only to admit the right of every citizen to freedom of conscience, political views and private life, but also to admit the equality of good and evil, even though they are absolutely opposite. Such a destruction of traditional values “from the top” not only leads to negative consequences for societies, but it is also anti-democratic, as it contradicts people’s will, who do not accept happening changes and suggested reforms, he said.
“There are more and more people who support our position on preservation of traditional values, which have been the spiritual and moral basis of every nation for centuries: the traditional family, true human life, including religious life, spiritual live, and the diversity of the world. Of course it is a conservative position, but as Nikolai Berdyaev said the essence of conservatism is not in its prevention of moving forward and up, but in its prevention of moving backward and down, to a chaotic darkness.”
So it was no coincidence that, ahead of the presidential address, the Center of Strategic Communications called Putin “the leader of world conservatism.” Dmitry Abzalov, President of the Center of Strategic Communications, stated that preservation of the conservative outline in 2013 was a peculiarity of Russian foreign policy.
Meanwhile, he said, “we are talking about a new demand for conservatism, for conservatives of a new wave. If we look at the top 10 most influential politicians, 8 of the 10 most influential politicians are conservatives. Only 3 people from the top 20 represent a left-wing policy, officially left-wing. And their positions in the internal market are very weak. As for Forbes, it has two classic politicians – Obama, who takes second place, and Hollande, who takes 8th-9th place, depending on the parameters of counting. Hollande’s level of support is much lower than 20%. Mrs. Merkel’s level of approval (and she is a classic representative of conservative policy in the EU) surpassed 60%. Putin, who takes the first place in Forbes, has 64%.”
These are two main approaches which are popular in the world, it is also connected with an economic component: “In the context of difficult economic problems and a difficult economic situation, people, voters became more prudent. The main thing for them is maintenance of their lifestyle. And a conservative agenda meets the demand.”
Secondly, defense of traditional values is needed. “It is a demand, and Moscow manages to answer it. If we look at sociological studies of recent years, we will see that the main part of voters in Italy, Spain, France, Germany pay attention not only to economic processes, but also to social, inter-religious conflicts, family issues… Citizens pay attention to a political position of their leader. Conservatism is expressed in traditional values and defense of them.”
According to Abzalov, “the demand for a moderate conservative line will increase, and it expands the horizons for a new agenda, new instruments of Russian foreign policy in the next 12 months. There are many players who are presented in various conflicts, but the only thing which united them is a conservative agenda. The situation in Southeast Asia confirms this. For instance, India, Japan, and China – despite differences in their economic policies and political institutes, a conservative agenda is the basis for cooperation. The multi-vector cooperation and establishment of new platforms, not in the economic sphere, but in politics, can become a trend of 2014.”
