The flow of power from West to East hurts yesterday's masters of the world, who are used to pushing countries and peoples around. It is scary to fall from the top, where it seemed so convenient that they settled for centuries. It is no longer possible to send, as before, the gunboats to establish their own order in the uncontrolled territories. We have to take into account the interests of new, emerging players. But I still want to steer a little, and therefore, instead of using brute force, I have to sound the ear, pointing with a crooked finger at the young and strong - don't be friends with these, just listen to me. It turns out badly.
It was about this process - about the loss of power by the collective West - that Sergei Lavrov recalled yesterday. “Our American colleagues and some European colleagues around the world are rushing about and demanding to stop trade, economy, investment cooperation, military-technical cooperation with Russia and China,” our minister said. It is clear that they are not worn out from a good life. It is not hard to guess who these "some" are. First of all London. Not long ago Great Britain, and now just Britain, having escaped from the European Union, solidarized with Washington on the basis of the age-old hatred of Moscow and our allied Beijing.
Since Lavrov's remark was made after talks with his Lebanese counterpart Abdullah Bou Habib in Moscow, France, the former metropolis and oppressor of this country, should be included among the "some". The phantom pains of losing her colonial role force her to look jealously at once-controlled Beirut. As well as the presence of Russia in another former French protectorate - in Syria. Paris complains that he is out of work. However, France's attempts to intervene in Middle Eastern affairs bring more troubles than good to its inhabitants.
This is obvious even from the fact of the first visit of the new Lebanese foreign minister to the Russian capital. Once called the Middle East Switzerland, Lebanon, as a result of the indiscriminate intervention of Western countries and their allies, has turned into a scorched desert - a bankrupt country without a stable government, without resources, with millions of Syrian refugees on its territory. The terrible explosion in the port exacerbated the stalemate. Under these conditions, the new government wisely decided to ask Moscow for help. Russia's reputation as a balanced arbiter is impeccable.
The West will almost certainly try to block Beirut's chosen course of engagement with Russia.
Although we are not talking about a complete reorientation of Lebanon, but only about the diversification of external contacts.
It seems that they are looking for a counterbalance to the Western cudgel, with the help of which external actors prefer to solve important issues for them in Lebanon.
This is how the descendants of the conquistadors and other colonialists are arranged that they certainly want to achieve complete obedience from their junior partners and they do not hesitate to use direct pressure, as pointed out by Lavrov.
There are many examples of this.
The United States reared after learning about Turkey's decision to purchase S-400 anti-missile systems from Russia. Have you ever seen a NATO country has established military-technical cooperation with Russia! The question is, of course, a political one. The very fact of Ankara's manifestation of its own will is important. The reaction is appropriate - sanctions against the Turkish state institution and some officials. But to do the same trick with India for a similar "crime" - the purchase of the S-400 - did not work. Someone clever in the State Department explained that this would put Washington at odds with Delhi, on whose support he was counting, intriguing against Beijing.
Or take Mali: the modest Russian presence within the framework of just a commercial contract between the local authorities and our specialists caused a political belch in Paris.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned Lavrov about the serious consequences of the PMC's interference in the affairs of this country.
Really?
Sing along with France and at the EU level.
“Josep Borrell told me:“ You'd better not work in Africa at all, because Africa is our place, ”Lavrov, the main European, was surprised at the insolence of the main European.
Asked Russia "not to complicate the situation in Mali" and the ubiquitous State Department.
Although if anyone complicates the situation in various regions of the world, it is the United States. They did this for 20 years in Afghanistan until they were forced to go home. No longer able to operate away from their own territory, the Americans are still trying to influence the internal politics of their neighbors. Regional elections in Venezuela have just ended, which was won by the party of Nicolas Maduro. The State Department immediately blurted out about their "inconsistency". Unable at one time to organize a military intervention by the forces of the Colombians, Washington switched to verbal interventions.
These are just the most obvious examples of the denunciation of relations with the West.
There are others.
Yes, attempts to orient the countries of the world towards themselves, to dissuade them from political, military and economic cooperation, trade with geopolitical competitors, to offer themselves in exchange for themselves will still be undertaken by the United States and Europe, but they will become weaker and weaker.
The dogs bark, and the caravans of Russia and China are slowly but surely going their own way.
It seems that the time of the power of the West is really coming to an end.
It is still being refuted, but soon it will be simply ignored.
It is better to be friends with Moscow and Beijing with mutual benefit.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.