Wednesday, 9 September 2009
The Cold War between Russia and the West ended, but not for the whole world, was one conclusion made by the participants in Tuesday’s meeting of the Valdai discussion club, as representatives of 16 countries cruised the Siberian River Lena on two cruise boats.
The club’s meetings devoted to a Russia and the West: back to the future discussion are organized by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti and the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (CFDP), a nonpartisan advocacy organization, and are closed to the media.
Although opinions differed on whether or not the Cold War had actually ended, political analysts generally believe that the ghost of it still lingers at least in people’s minds, and could resurface in any part of the word and rapidly escalate into a real war. Tensions persist in Iraq, in the Gulf, and the Korean peninsula, and there is a lot of controversy and dispute on many issues which provoke conflict, such as manifestations of racism, religion, women’s rights and homosexuality.
Some of the participants agreed that recent events following Georgia’s attempted forceful resolution to its breakaway regions problem have effectively drawn a line under the Cold War between Russia and the West as well as NATO’s eastward expansion. The international community has apparently realized that certain boundaries should not be crossed. They must have also realized that the European Security Treaty proposed by Russia is absolutely crucial to turn a new page in history.
The political analysts pointed out that neither Russia nor the United States currently have a strategy for building a new world order. Some said the best strategy would be a final reconciliation, like between Russia and Germany. They also suggested that the reason the West still remains suspicious of Russia is that Russia, unlike Germany, had declared itself the rightful successor to the Soviet Union. Russia is still often seen as the empire it had been, despite its ideological U-turn.
Another problem is that Russia, while supporting the U.S. policy of preventing the spread of the radical Taliban regime in Afghanistan, is equally against an Afghanistan run by NATO.
The discussion club members agreed that Russia, China and the European Union must put an end to the demonization of Iran and North Korea, and forge a dialogue with these nations on nuclear disarmament. They believe there are more unifying factors than those of discord. One unifying factor is certainly the current economic downturn and global warming, two problems that need to be tackled in unison.
“The Cold War is over, but the approach has not been entirely uprooted in people’s minds. The tiny pieces that remain still reproduce themselves. As a result, Europe is getting weaker,” CFDP head Sergei Karaganov told RIA Novosti.
The Valdai Club was set up in 2004 by RIA Novosti in association with CFDP, The Moscow News weekly, and the magazines Russia in Global Affairs and Russia Profile. It annually convenes dozens of political analysts from different countries to consider important current issues. These discussions first and foremost help foreign participants understand Russia better.
In late June, shortly before the U.S.-Russian summit, Moscow hosted a forum devoted to the “resetting” of U.S.-Russian relations, also part of the Valdai Discussion Club. The two countries’ political analysts made presentations there on where Moscow’s and Washington’s interests coincide or clash.
