May 10: Petr Akopov, The offensive of Russia and the new world
An astonishing article published on February 26, 2022 by RIA Novosti. The publication was celebrating the annexation of Ukraine
Before Reading…
An article supposedly penned by Petr Akopov was published on the RIA Novosti news website on February 26, 2022, and then almost immediately taken down. Like many op-eds on the RIA Novosti site, Putin often edits them: it seems that this op-ed has his signature all over it. I would have entitled it, “Russia is returning”.
The same article was also published on the Sputnik News network websites, and removed, but it was found on a website dedicated to news about Abkhazia (here archived on February 27, 2022) but it is still available on the Sputnik News Uzbekistan website.
Наступление России и нового мира
08:00 26.02.2022 (обновлено: 08:01 26.02.2022) (translation: up-dated)
The Russian leadership believed it would take Kyiv in a matter of days so it’s a congratulatory op-ed on the success of the Russian war in Ukraine—a victory op-ed for having reunited Ukraine, which Putin calls, ‘Little Russia’, with the motherland. The arguments used to justify Russia’s war against in the op-ed are well-known. For these entho-nationalists, Ukraine does not exist as an independent state—it is “historical Russia”.
The author also addresses Europe, and the European Union accusing them of ingratitude, defining them as short-sighted for having brought NATO to Russian borders, but the crux of the article is Russia’s belief that a new global order does exist. Headed by a reunited Mother Russia, in alliance with India, Latin America and Africa, the Islamic world and Southeast Asia, the new world order will prevail over the old and tired “Anglo-Saxon sphere”.
I’ve re-published the article so it stays in the EuroFile archives, and as a reminder that Russia renewed its invasion of Ukraine with the intent of wiping it off the face of the earth as an independent nation, and as a challenge to the international rules based order. The article is chilling. As we await Ukraine’s counteroffensive, the op-ed puts into focus exactly what is at stake for Ukraine and for the democracies that support it, and for the future of the international order.
My thanks to the investigators of Open-Fact Checking and Open.Online for providing the background about the original article.
The offensive of Russia and the new world
Petr Akopov, RIA Novosti, Feb 26, 2022
A new world is being born before our eyes. Russia's military operation in Ukraine has ushered in a new era - and in three dimensions at once. And of course, the fourth, inside Russia. Here begins a new period both in ideology and in the very model of our socio-economic system - but this is worth talking about separately a little later.
Russia is restoring its unity - the tragedy of 1991, this terrible catastrophe in our history, its unnatural dislocation, has been overcome. Yes, at a great cost, yes, through the tragic events of an actual civil war, because brothers, now divided by belonging to the Russian and Ukrainian armies, are still shooting at each other, but Ukraine will no longer be anti-Russia. Russia is restoring its historical greatness, gathering the Russian world, the Russian people together - in all its totality of Great Russians, Belarusians and Little Russians. If we had abandoned this, if we had allowed the temporary division to take hold for centuries, then we would not only betray the memory of our ancestors, but would also be cursed by our descendants for allowing the disintegration of the Russian land.
Without a drop of exaggeration, Vladimir Putin has assumed a historic responsibility by deciding not to leave the solution of the Ukrainian question to future generations. After all, the need to solve it would always remain the main problem for Russia - for two key reasons. The issue of national security, that is, the creation of a Ukrainian anti-Russia as an outpost for the West to put pressure on us, is only the second most important among them.
The first would always be the complexities of a divided people, a national humiliation - when the Russian motherland first lost part of its foundation (Kiev), and then was forced to come to terms with the existence of two states, not one, but two peoples. The question was, either abandon our history, agreeing with the crazy versions that "only Ukraine is the real Rus'," or to gnash our teeth helplessly, remembering the times when "we lost Ukraine." Returning Ukraine, that is, returning it to Russia, would be more and more difficult with every decade - recoding, de-Russification of Russians and inciting Russian Little Russians-Ukrainians against Russians would only gain momentum.
Now this problem is gone - Ukraine has returned to Russia. This does not mean that its statehood will be eliminated, but it will be reorganized, re-established and returned to its natural state—[that is] as part of the Russian world. Within what borders, in what form will the alliance with Russia be fixed (through the CSTO and the Eurasian Union or the Union State of Russia and Belarus )? This will be decided when the end of the history of Ukraine as anti-Russia is achieved. In any case, the period of a divided Russian people is coming to an end.
And here begins the second dimension of the coming new era - it concerns Russia's relations with the West. Not even Russia, but the Russian world, that is, three states, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, acting in geopolitical terms as a single whole. These relations have entered a new stage - the West is witnessing the return of Russia to its historical borders in Europe. And it is openly indignant at this, although in the depths of its soul it must admit to itself that it could not be otherwise.
Did someone in the old European capitals, in Paris and Berlin , seriously believe that Moscow would give up Kiev? That the Russians would be a divided people forever? And especially now when Europe is uniting, when the German and French elites are trying to seize control of European integration from the Americans and assemble a united Europe? Forgetting that the unification of Europe became possible only thanks to the unification of Germany, which happened according to the good Russian (albeit not very smart) willingness. To bring Europe to Russian lands is not only the height of ingratitude, but geopolitical stupidity. The West as a whole, and Europe in particular, did not have the strength to keep Ukraine in its sphere of influence, and to take Ukraine for itself. One had to be just geopolitical fools to not have understood this.
More precisely, there was only one option: to bet on the further collapse of Russia, that is, the Russian Federation. But the fact that this bet did not work should have been clear twenty years ago. Already fifteen years ago, after Putin's Munich speech, even the deaf could hear - Russia is returning.
Now the West is trying to punish Russia for the fact that it has returned, for not justifying its plans to profit at Russia’s expense, for stopping the expansion of the western sphere to the east. Seeking to punish us, the West thinks that relations with it are of vital importance to us. But this has not been the case for a long time - the world has changed, and this is well understood not only by Europeans, but also by the Americans who rule the West. No amount of Western pressure on Russia will lead to anything. Losses from the confrontation will be on both sides, but Russia is ready for them morally and geopolitically. But for the West, an increase in the degree of confrontation incurs huge costs - and the main ones are not at all economic.
Europe, as part of the West, wanted autonomy - the German project of European integration does not make strategic sense while maintaining American ideological, military and geopolitical control over the Old World. Yes, and it cannot be successful, because the Americans need a subjugated Europe. But Europe needs autonomy for another reason as well — in case America goes into self-isolation (as a result of growing internal conflicts and contradictions) or focuses on the Pacific region, where the geopolitical center of gravity is shifting.
But the confrontation with Russia, into which the Americans are dragging Europe, deprives the Europeans of the slightest chance of independence - not to mention the fact that Europe is trying to impose a break with China on the Americans. If the Atlanticists are now happy that the "Russian threat" will unite the Western bloc, Berlin and Paris cannot but understand that the European project will simply collapse in the medium term because they have lost their autonomy. That is why independent-minded Europeans are now completely uninterested in building a new iron curtain on their eastern borders - realizing that it limit Europe’s autonomy. Its century (more precisely, half a millennium) of global leadership is over in any case - but various options for its future are still possible.
Because the construction of a new world order - and this is the third dimension of current events - is accelerating, and its contours are more and more clearly visible as it overshadows American globalization. The multipolar world has finally become a reality - the operation in Ukraine is not capable of rallying anyone but the West against Russia. Because the rest of the world sees and understands very well that this is a conflict between Russia and the West; this is a response to the geopolitical expansion of the Atlanticists; this is Russia's return of its historical sphere and its place in the world.
China and India , Latin America and Africa , the Islamic world and Southeast Asia - no one believes that the West leads the world order anymore, much less sets the rules of the game. Russia has not only challenged the West, it has shown that the era of Western global domination can be considered completely and finally over. The new world will be built by all civilizations and centers of power, naturally, together with the West (united or not) - but not on its terms and not according to its rules.