By Vestnik Kavkaza
New accusations of an escalation of the Ukrainian crisis were voiced at a session of the UN Security Council. Samantha Power, the US permanent envoy to the UN, stated that Moscow had a plan “to attach territories which were occupied in September to separatists and legalize thepresence of Russian troops and armored vehicles on Ukrainian territory.” “We have already seen peacemaking plans – Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transdniestria… Russia speaks about peace, but in fact it is conducting a war. President Putin has many times stretched out an olive-branch in one hand and sent missiles and tanks with another one,” Power said.
The Russian permanent envoy to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, an old opponent of Samantha Power, noted that the U.S. has played a provocative role in the conflict over Ukraine: “The current military escalation mystically coincided with the visit to Kiev by the Commander of the American Forces in Europe. It is fascinating how Washington’s participation – in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine – leads to destabilization, crisis and blood.”
Explaining the essence of the contradictions between Washington and Moscow, Alexei Fenenko, the senior scientist of the Institute of International Security Problems of the RAS, explained: “Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which has an opportunity to resist American policy and has a legal mechanism for blocking American acts. And till the Russian problem is solved for the Americans, we cannot speak about a monopolar world, American leadership in the world. The Russian issue should be settled for this.”
According to Fenenko, the main strategic goals of the American policy are to reduce the military and nuclear potential of Russia to a safe (for the US) level and to reform the UN Security Council. Ukraine plays a much more important role for the Americans than terrorism and anything else. Ukraine is a guarantee of non-reconstruction of the USSR… The modern world order that was restored in 1991 and was based on the idea that the results of the USSR's dissolution would never be reconsidered.
However, last year the model of hidden competition between the RF and the US was exhausted. “Before 2014 we knew that we were opponents, our military and political doctrines considered each other in such a way. There was hidden competition; we treated each other coldly, but still called each other partners. At the same time, there were joint projects; we tried to harmonize our positions. I believe today we have stepped into a confrontation which can be conducted without any insurance mechanisms and rules. And this is more dangerous than in the Cold War period, when there were some rules of the confrontation,” Fenenko stated.
He pointed out four main challenges for Russia.
The first challenge is integration into the world economy. “While we have independent industry in the country, an independent and relatively autonomous financial system, none of the sanctions threatens us. If we move toward a sharper model of confrontation with the West, we need a form of economic autarchy. We should revive a kind of economic autonomy. We should think about withdrawal from the world financial system partially, but to a larger extent,” the expert thinks.
The second challenge is the consolidation of the West on anti-Russian basis. “Despite all our attempts at building relations with France and Germany, despite our self-persuasion that the US is one country and Germany is another country, that France and Germany will block the US activity in favor of our friendship, the Ukrainian crisis shows that nobody intends to block anything. Yes, there are dissatisfied French media, dissatisfied Italian politicians, but in general nobody will quarrel with the US to support us.”
The third challenge is that nobody seriously supports Russia in the non-Western world. “They didn’t take a pro-American position, but I haven’t heard any Chinese or Indian politician who said: “Russia is right, the US is wrong. We recognize Crimea as a Russian region.” The BRICS criticized the sanctions, but nobody warned about the countermeasures. The non-Western world will follow the results of our conflict, but it won’t spoil relations with the Americans to support us,” Fesenko predicts.
The fourth challenge is the Ukrainian conflict. According to the expert, “we will get another frozen conflict on CIS territory.”
