By Vestnik Kavkaza
Russia has traditionally been considered as a civilized bridge between the West and the East, but lately, due to the Western sanctions, Moscow began to increase trade
with Asian countries and the countries of the East. Is this process only predetermined by the economy? As the CEO of International News Agency "Rossiya Segodnya" Dmitry Kiselev believes, "Europe imposes sanctions, Europe is not ready to understand Russia, she is not ready to understand what happened to Crimea, she is not ready to understand what is happening in Ukraine. The strength of Russia is that it is not only a European country. Europe has largely been built by the efforts of the Titans of Russian culture - Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy - as the greatest philosophers in the system of the European thinking."
Meanwhile, according to Kiselev, one of the obstacles for the development of Russia is "the excessive Eurocentricity of our consciousness": "We still have Europe subconsciously - it is always a plus, because we are like a part of Europe, we want to be Europeans. But Europe is different, the Europe which is definitely good in the Russian consciousness is no more. Many values that by inertia are still spoken about in Europe, are no longer valuable for Europe. For example, freedom of speech. In Russia, the range of the freedom of speech is much larger than in Europe. We have somewhat wider freedom of speech because we do not have this tradition of freedom of speech. We are lawless here. Russian writer Viktor Yerofeyev can say on television that Leningrad should have been surrendered during the blockade. I cannot imagine anything like that in England that some English writer says that London should have been surrendered. On our radio Kseniya Larina can say that she is vomiting worms and cherry pits from patriotism. Nothing of that kind you will hear in Europe, in England. If we take the other side of our freedom of speech, you can hear absolutely cosmic heights of patriotism from the writer Prokhanov, clearly shaped, gold-plated, deep, poetic. No one speaks in such language in Europe."
Kiselyov said that the "stupid" and "shameful" sanctions gave Russia a chance to turn to the East, and the worst thing that could happen now with Russia is the cancellation of the Western sanctions. The CEO of "Rossiya Segodnya" said his position is motivated by the fact that "we would have relaxed again, we would again - scary thought - have told our manufacturers who have taken up the case that "it is not necessary, we will buy it in the West." We would withdraw from the contracts with Latin America, Turkey, India and many suppliers that have replaced imports from Western Europe, the second time they would not believe us already. There is nothing good in the lifting of sanctions. Therefore, let’s perceive it as an opportunity."
