Tip: Highlight text to annotate itX
Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Board of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, the editor-in-chief of the magazine ‘Russia in Global Politics’, and a member of the international discussion club ‘Valdai’,
On the one hand we can see a very confident and thoughtful diplomatic policy provided by Russia, which faces a real interest.
Not just an approval:
“Good job! Now you are grown-ups; we will decide everything and you will help us.”
Today the situation is absolutely different because nobody is really sure what to do.
And Russian proposals on Syria and Iran, I hope, really help to reorient the developments.
Russia feels more confident in international politics, and nobody doubts this,
including experts and politicians who don’t like President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, and our other politicians.
Nobody denies the big role played by Putin in international affairs.
And the recent surprising poll by Forbes confirmed this.
But for us it should be a warning, because it is easy to fall into a dreamy phase, thinking that everything is good.
Meanwhile, we have either stagnation or sliding down in the internal policy.
The main thing is institutional stability of the state and the society, and we cannot see any progress here.
We can call it an absence of optimism.
But I think the absence of optimism occurs not only due to an absence of bravery,
but also because a series of events seem rather pessimistic;
however, it doesn’t mean we should give up.
As for the Russian policy of ‘soft power’ which was positively estimated by ‘Valdai’ experts,
experts estimate efforts which the state makes.
In recent 2-3 years more discussions appeared, real events were held, money was invested – it is positive.
The general openness is perceived positively, but nobody abroad considers Russia an open country.
The huge red field shows that we use ‘soft power’ and everybody sees it, but the result doesn’t work.
The things which we have inside the country surpass the efforts which are made to correct the image.
At the same time, we cannot cheat and present a picture which doesn’t correspond to the reality, as the world is different.
Previously we couldn’t do this, and now especially.
