This article originally appeared at Zhurnalistskaja Pravda. Translated by J.Hawk at Fort Russ
At the moment the internet is full of complaints about the mistakes and betrayals by the Russian government–it’s a fashionable and well-paying enterprise. There’s a national proverb–“thin tea for some, a small pearl for others”–it’s always easy to find reasons to be dissatisfied.
But we shall talk about the Kremlin’s most recent accomplishments and how they are changing the global balance of power.
1. In Ufa Putin took India and Pakistan and got them involved in the Shanghai Organization integration processes. The Organization’s countries now total over three billion people, and include more nuclear powers than NATO.
Moreover, Russia acted as a peacekeeper because it insisted on a bilateral meeting between India and Pakistan which froze their diplomatic contacts a year ago after a border clash.
2. Russia is also acting as an intermediary between Iran and “the six”, which will reduce Iran’s sanctions burden and allow it more freedom to pursue own policies.
Some are concerned that Iran might greatly increase its oil exports which will cause oil prices to drop further. First of all, it doesn’t have the technical ability to do so, and new deposits require considerable time and investment to develop. Secondly, Iran itself is not interested in dumping of this sort.
Moreover, benefits to Russia are plainly visible–Iran will be able to help Syria more actively (both countries are Russia’s allies at this stage), and the US won’t be able to continue lying about how the ABM system is being built against Iran, which makes its aggressive policies more evident.
3. Russia has cut in half the proportion of US Treasuries in its gold and currency reserves.
4. Russia has considerably reduced its foreign debt. It also reduced the debts of its state firms and has done so at a 10% discount.
5. Russia increased its share of control over strategic state companies.
6. The Crimea group of forces has been strengthened.
7. Nearly all army units have had their combat readiness checked.
8. The army’s rearmament is continuing apace.
9. LPR and DPR are now de-facto part of the ruble zone. While formally it’s a bi-currency zone, 84% of all transactions are conducted in rubles.
10. LPR and DPR are developing their own banking system under joint oversight and in cooperation with South Ossetia. Once the process is complete, nobody will have to pay Kiev any taxes.
11. DPR and LPR have established centralized military commands. Anarchy has been put down, all military units are now under firm control.
12. DPR and LPR industry is being integrated with the Russian economy, dozens of firms are already working to fulfill Russian orders.
13. Many European corporations (especially German and Italian) are openly ignoring their own governments’ sanctions, continuing to work with their Russian partners.
14. Russia has either entered into treaties or is continuing negotiations with several countries to implement currency swaps in order to conduct trade in national currencies without the use of the dollar.
15. The volume of new contracts with China alone is estimated at over one trillion dollars.
16. Russia has become one of the charter members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is equivalent to, and is supposed to replace, the IMF and the World Bank.
17. The implementation of a an alternative Russo-Chinese payment system.
18. Ukraine’s bankruptcy due to the shattering of bilateral industrial and economic cooperation with Russia is now evident. Ukraine is experiencing growing chaos and the Kiev’s regime’s hold on power is growing weaker. Eurointegration propaganda has been discredit, only the mentally ill continue to believe it.
This list is far from complete, there are many other items which I simply forgot or which it’s too soon to discuss in public.
Overall, Russia and China are building an alternative system of international relations which many have dubbed “alter-globalization” a while ago. Its motto is “Another World Is Possible.”
In a battle of two systems the better structured one will prevail. That’s why Moscow and Beijing are establishing more empowering, more independent, and more just equivalents of nearly all Western institutions, their own versions of IMF, World Bank, NATO, OSCE, and many others.
The next step, ideally, should be the integration of legislation and judicial systems, including the creation of international tribunals and arbitration courts as alternatives to ECJ, London Arbitrage, and The Hague.
I understand that the couch experts would like everything to be done right now, immediately, a swift, global, and painless victory, but it’s never like that. Any change requires time, and global change even more so. Especially since the leadership of China and Russia desire to soften the consequences of the US loss of global hegemony and its likely economic collapse as a result of another, even more severe, crisis.
The ongoing processes are enormous, the efforts applied to advance them are colossal, and if someone can’t notice them, it’s only because of their own problems with eyesight and hearing.