Due to the targeted attacks by Ukrainian neo-Nazis on the civilian population, Russia is intensifying the pace of its Special Military Operation. Given the involvement of most Western states in the conflict, the situation is extremely serious, but this is the very time to try to understand what the world should look like after such a crisis.
Photo: Evgeny Biyatov / RIA Novosti
Patience Has Its Limits
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published an official statement, the wording of which is short and clear: ‘The Zelensky junta and its Western sponsors, who supply the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the tools of crimes against our people, have demonstrated to the whole world their blatant disregard for the norms of international humanitarian law… All this has exhausted our patience. Under the current circumstances, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are proceeding to systematically strike Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises in Kyiv, including specific sites where drones used by the Kyiv regime are designed, manufactured, programmed, and prepared for use, with the assistance of NATO specialists responsible for supplying components, providing intelligence data, and target designation. Strikes will also be carried out against decision-making centres and command posts. Because the above-mentioned facilities are scattered throughout Kyiv, we warn foreign citizens, including personnel of diplomatic missions and offices of international organisations, to leave the city as soon as possible, and we warn residents of the Ukrainian capital against approaching military and administrative infrastructure facilities of the Zelensky regime.’
Everyone has probably heard the saying about the last Chinese warning. There have also been last Russian warnings. It can be said there have even been several, but to no avail. Now, it seems, they have finally come to an end.
What the International Order Should Be
Sooner or later, crises get resolved. Abscesses are lanced, pus is removed. We need to think about what comes next – remember how many stages of discussion on the post-war structure of the world there were between the allies during the Great Patriotic War? In this case, a direct analogy cannot be drawn due to the absence of a formal alliance similar to the Anti-Hitler coalition, but in practice, in today’s conditions, it seems that the new international order will be determined gradually under the leadership of the World Majority, a strengthening and free non-Western world. First and foremost, it is important to develop an understanding of the principles of international relations for the future – what they should be. Probably the most important thing is that they should become honest and more open. Furthermore, bloc politics must become a thing of the past; for example, in the Asia-Pacific region per se, it is becoming difficult to breathe because of the number of Western military alliances. New mechanisms for arms control should emerge; for instance, let us recall the repeatedly voiced Russian initiatives to ban the militarisation of space, and for banning the use of inhumane means of warfare – cluster bombs, incendiary munitions, chemical, and biological weapons.
Sincere and overt cooperation must be implemented in combating current threats to international security – terrorism, extremism, transnational crime, mercenarism, drug trafficking, smuggling, human and animal trafficking, threats to mental and physical health, phone fraud, and the spread of cults. Finally, an international legal framework and international legal mechanisms must be established for such sensitive and complex issues as information security and combating cybercrime. Russia has repeatedly voiced its proposals in this direction within BRICS, and the states – our colleagues in this group – have thrown their support behind them.
And we currently need to start contemplating a multitude of problems. The United Nations – in the context of the Ukrainian crisis, it has shown its complete ineffectiveness, its affiliation with Western structures, its disinformation, and its toothless policies. How to reform it and its huge bureaucratic structure in the future? And what should be done, for example, with the OSCE? How can regional international organisations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America erect decisive barriers to the attempts of former Western colonisers to interfere in their politics and international relations now? How can we develop new mechanisms to resolve disputes arising within one’s own region without internationalizing issues and without external intervention? How can we jointly combat the manifestations of information warfare and disinformation, against which the fascist West has deployed entire armies of ‘specialists’ and non-governmental organisations?
‘Let Noble Fury…’
Leaving the aforementioned questions to multilateral diplomacy structures and legal experts, let us turn our attention to another significant point. Crises unite peoples, make competitive states stronger, expose traitors and saboteurs, and filter out and throw overboard, like ballast, those who are unworthy of bearing the proud title of a citizen of their country. Not only Russia and its neighbours from the former Soviet Union know this from their own experience, but many others do as well – all those who, in different historical eras, have been touched by external aggression – Nazism, colonialism, international terrorism, religious fundamentalism and extremism, interference in internal affairs from outside that divides peoples and sows conflicts. Serbia and Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, Syria and Mali, China and Korea, Vietnam and Nicaragua, Sudan and Ethiopia, Rwanda and Congo… The list could go on, and, unfortunately, for a very long time.
But in a crisis, a country must withstand the blow and bounce back stronger than before. And not only in military-political terms, but more importantly and primarily – morally. The other day, the author of the New Eastern Outlook had the good fortune to attend a concert at the Moscow House of Music by the Donetsk Symphony Orchestra, also known as the ‘Orchestra of the Unconquered.’ Together with leading soloists from other Russian musical ensembles, the orchestra performed completely new works; contemporary symphonic music was played, including music that had never been performed anywhere before. Among the composers, there are direct participants of military operations. In this music – there is the roar of shelling, sounds heard by people hiding in basements, the buzzing of drones, suffering, screams, the pain of loss, the weeping of mothers at the Alley of Angels, prayers for our soldiers who are now fighting on the front lines with weapons in their hands, the howl of sirens, the tinkle of broken glass, fanfares of victories, referendums, and the Day of Reunification of the new regions with Russia. And what is more important, it contains an indomitable spirit, incredible strength, and always – hope. These emotions cannot be faked; they can only be experienced. And the musicians relived them anew in every piece.
In certain times this life becomes terrible and brings critical trials. But still it is our present time, the life is real, it is unfolding here and now, and it has a meaning and a future worth fighting for, for the sake of our future generations. That is why we are once again waiting for the news from the front lines, just as our relatives listened to the addresses of Joseph Stalin and the broadcasts of Yury Levitan. We see who is against us, we see how all masks are being dropped, and we see who is with us in the struggle against global fascism, global lawlessness, and madness. We will become better, purer, and stronger in this struggle. And international relations must also reach a new level. This is worth believing in.
Ksenia Muratshina, PhD in History, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Southeast Asia, Australia, and Oceania Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Culture Section Editor of NEO
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