Russians pay to return to the club of great powers – media
Moscow – Kyiv, December 26 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – Syria, Crimea, and Donbas have brought Russia back into global politics. Russia's "hybrid diplomacy," combining propaganda with "paratroopers who accidentally crossed the Ukrainian border," produced almost immediate results: "Crimea is ours," while the armed conflict in Donbas is preventing Ukraine from moving toward NATO. But ordinary Russians will pay the price, Vedomosti reports.
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They really began to listen to Moscow’s position, the newspaper admits: “An example of the strengthening of Russian influence was last year’s crisis in Syria: its president Bashar al-Assad, despite the bloody civil war, was saved by Putin from the invasion of the Western coalition led by the United States and from repeating the fate of Colonel Gaddafi. At the insistence of Moscow, the United States abandoned intervention in exchange for the removal of chemical weapons from Syria under its control. This was recognized throughout the world as a diplomatic triumph for Putin. At the same time, Moscow actively strengthened integration processes in the CIS space and enthusiastically worked with its BRICS partners.”
“In February 2014, Russia won another foreign policy victory - the successfully held Olympic Games and the unconditional victories of Russian athletes temporarily made Russia a world sports power, which had a positive impact on its general political authority. And thanks to a sharp increase in budgets for state propaganda, Moscow’s voice has become louder abroad,” Vedomosti states.
In this situation, the Kremlin decided to carry out an operation to capture Crimea, believing that Russia’s positions were already strong enough to weather the inevitable storm. The West presented a united front against Moscow, forgetting for a while about traditional differences. But precisely because of this, Russian foreign policy became the main factor in international politics, and Putin’s every action and statement was commented on in all the world’s capitals.
Russian “hybrid diplomacy,” combining propaganda with “paratroopers who accidentally crossed the Ukrainian border,” gave an almost instant result: “Crimea is ours,” and Ukraine is being prevented from moving into NATO by the armed conflict in Donbass. But ordinary Russians will have to pay for this with the collapsed ruble, the publication summarizes.
Russians are paying to return to the club of great powers – media