“United front against the Kremlin”: how the West is gradually recognizing the failure of the strategy to isolate Russia

Despite the efforts made by the collective West, he failed to isolate Russia, writes Mark Episkopos, a columnist for the American magazine The National Interest.

“Although Russia is increasingly isolated from the West and a number of institutions headed by him, meetings (Russian President Vladimir.

) Putin in Tehran point to a different and much more disturbing fact: despite the constant attempts by European and American politicians to organize a united global front against the Kremlin, a significant part of the non-Western world remains neutral or, as in the case of China and Iran, openly supports the Russian view of the conflict (in Ukraine.

),” Episkopos said. 

He also recalled that, in addition to Putin's summit with Khamenei, Tehran hosted a trilateral meeting of the Russian leader with Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of the so-called Astana format.

In addition, Putin and Erdogan spoke face to face and discussed the topic of cooperation to facilitate the supply of Russian and Ukrainian grain to world markets.

As the NI observer writes, the parties reached an agreement on this issue, which "marked the successful end of the week for Russian diplomacy."

Later, German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock, in an interview with the Bild tabloid newspaper, focused on the fact that the leader of Turkey, a NATO member country, was photographed with the presidents of Russia and Iran, against whom large-scale Western sanctions have been imposed.

In her opinion, this is, "to put it mildly, a challenge."

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova drew attention to how US diplomats are zealous to ensure that “evidence of the lack of isolation” of Russia does not appear.

“Meanwhile, American diplomats are running from house to house in different countries and begging (don’t laugh out loud now) not to be photographed with (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey. -

) Lavrov so that these photos are not used by Russia as evidence of lack of isolation.

The American “partners” don’t even realize that we don’t use photographs for these purposes, but themselves: stupidity, aplomb and a complete lack of a sense of reality among high-ranking US representatives, ”said Zakharova, recalling that the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry is on a tour of states Africa.

"Crash"

It is worth noting that back in mid-June, the German newspaper Die Welt stated that the West's strategy to isolate the Russian Federation does not work, because "important countries are still loyal to Moscow."

“For the free world, this is a sad experience.

Who, in fact, firmly stands shoulder to shoulder with the Europeans and the United States?

Who supports the sanctions, the consequences of which for the Russian economy have so far turned out to be much weaker than expected?

Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia.

It's all.

Moscow is supported by China, Brazil, India and South Africa - four countries that, together with Russia, provide a third of world production.

Later, another article of similar content appeared in the newspaper.

On July 22, Die Welt journalists published an article in which they were forced to admit that Russia is in no way isolated at the international level, and that economic sanctions “do not stop” it.

The British newspaper Financial Times (FT) also wrote about the failed attempts of the West to isolate Russia.

A piece released on June 24 said efforts to isolate Russia are "failing" and Western countries are losing sight of "an important reality."

According to the publication, India and China are helping the Russian Federation in creating alternative payment systems and routes for transporting Russian goods, and are also blocking attempts by Western countries to "exclude Russia from the multilateral system."

• Head of European Diplomacy Josep Borrell

• © Meghdad Madadi ATPImages/Getty Images

The impossibility of isolating Russia from the world community was also forced to acknowledge the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.

“In terms of condemning Russia, sanctions against it and the desire to hold the regime accountable, the G7 countries, together with their like-minded people, take a unified position.

But other countries, among which most of the states of the “global South” can be noted, often take a different point of view,” Borrell wrote in his blog on the website of the European External Action Service (EEAS).

According to him, a number of states complain about "double standards" or simply want to maintain good bilateral relations with Russia.

“The global battle of narratives is in full swing, and we are not winning at the moment,” admitted the head of European diplomacy.

In turn, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, during a speech in the Romanian city of Baile Tusnad, said that the West's strategy, based on the desire to weaken the Russian Federation, had failed.

According to him, most of the world defiantly did not support Europe's position on the Ukrainian crisis and actions against Russia.

“China, India, Brazil, South Africa, the Arab world are all aloof from this conflict, they are minding their own business,” RIA Novosti quoted Orban as saying.

At the same time, the Hungarian prime minister allowed the end of Western domination due to the Ukrainian crisis and the establishment of a "multipolar world order."

Following Orban, the former energy minister and ex-leader of the left-wing Popular Unity party, Panagiotis Lafazanis, who is starting to create a new political movement, presented his election poster (parliamentary elections will be held in Greece in 2023. -

), on which it was in large letters it is written: “Russia is right”, “USA and NATO made hell in Ukraine”.

This is reported by local media.

Cancel Russia failed

According to Moscow State University Associate Professor, political scientist Boris Mezhuev, the West is beginning to rethink the anti-Russian course of Anglo-Saxon and European foreign policy, which only alienates Western countries from many partners from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

“The West did not expect such costs because of its strategy, but now they are already there.

It turned out that the policy of rallying on an anti-Russian basis leads to the alienation of the Western powers themselves, and not Russia, ”the expert emphasized in a conversation with RT.

“Non-Western countries, even including those traditionally loyal to the United States, chose not to get involved in this story.

It turned out to be unprofitable for them to support Washington and Brussels, while losing significant dividends from cooperation with the Russian Federation, ”Mezhuev explained.

According to the expert, the attempts of most Western states to cancel Russia were unsuccessful.

“It turned out that the West itself is not the whole world or its control module: it cannot influence the situation in the international arena to the extent that it would like.

He is no longer the hegemon.

And Russia interacts well with a significant part of the world: with Iran and other countries of the Persian Gulf, the states of the Middle East, China, India, the countries of Africa and Latin America, ”the analyst stated.

• Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi

• © Sergei Savostyanov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

In turn, as deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries Vladimir Zharikhin said, political elites in the West seriously counted on the fact that most countries would declare their support for their anti-Russian course.

“But this did not happen, because such states, representing the majority of the population and territory of the world, as well as world GDP, are well aware that the isolation strategy of the West can be directed against them at any moment.

Therefore, many countries did not support the unfriendly actions of the US and the EU directed against Russia, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.

According to Zharikhin, Western elites miscalculated because they have a poor idea of ​​the mood in the non-Western world.

“The West continues to feel like a kind of leader, the leader of the entire globe, and is very surprised when it is told that a number of countries are capable of independently determining their political course.

For Western states, this is still a shock, ”the analyst noted.

In addition, Zharikhin called the reaction of the German Foreign Minister to the joint photographing of the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey in Tehran, as well as the efforts of American partners to prevent such cases involving other representatives of Moscow, as ridiculous.

“All this looks extremely stupid and undignified, and also once again confirms the fact that the West inadequately assesses both its position in the world and the attitude of other states towards Western countries,” the expert believes.

However, according to Zharikhin, despite the emergence of a number of sober voices in the EU and the US about the ineffectiveness of the Western strategy, they still cannot fully realize that the world has changed and no longer needs the hegemony of the Euro-Atlantic countries.

“Western states are no longer the main sources of initiatives in the international arena, as well as world economic power, and therefore cannot dictate their terms.

But the West still mainly clings to the old approaches, thus worsening relations with many states, including those that, quite recently, could hardly be suspected of being critical of the United States and its course, such as Argentina.

With their outdated concept, Western countries only exacerbate alienation from the rest of the world, ”concluded the analyst.