Carnegie Moscow Center
Divisions exist among major nations about how to approach Putin, and his isolation is anything but watertight. At the same time, the Russians themselves are no less defiant of what they see as U.S. global domination.
Rather than thinking about some grand architecture for the future, all sides of the current Russian-Western conflict should step away from the brink.
The Ukraine crisis was not just about Ukraine, or even Europe. It was about the global order, which promises a long competition with a yet-unforeseen result.
Japan’s national interests need to be front and center, rather than subordinated to the not always clear vision—or lack of it—of a particular administration in Washington. These interests demand that Tokyo keeps a viable relationship with Moscow.
The Victory Day parade in Moscow has sent a number of important messages, which outsiders would do well to reflect upon.
The Russia-China rapprochement is a sign of the changing world order, in which the West is still very relevant, but no longer dominant.
Vladimir Putin’s decision to lift a ban on the exports of the S-300 air defense missile system to Iran has caused shockwaves in the West and Israel. However, the Kremlin’s move was quite predictable with a rather clearly discernible logic behind it.
On May 9—the Victory Day—the majority of top-level visitors will come to Moscow from the non-Western countries. Russia’s quest for acceptance in or by the West is finally over, and its foreign policy will require a new identity and new orientation.
The Sino-Russian entente—with its unstated, but transparent goal of reducing U.S. global dominance—is easily the most important result of the Ukraine crisis and the preceding deterioration of Russian-Western relations. The West needs to take this seriously.
President Putin’s decision to lift the ban on the transfer of the S-300 air defense system to Iran signals a new departure for Moscow’s policy in the Middle East.