“A Year of Victories. What’s Next?”
For almost twenty-five years, Russia teetered on the brink of “Weimar syndrome” – a sense of humiliation and injustice thrusted on it by Western policies. But, unlike Germany in the 1930s, Russia managed not to be drawn into it; it launched a political fight, held out and ended up the winner. Also, a very promising radical change involved another facet of the mindset of the leading part of the Russian ruling elite and the majority of the population. Over the past 300 years, geo-strategically and culturally they saw themselves and their country as a periphery of Europe. In 2011-2012, Russia sharply intensified its turn towards the growing economic and political markets of Asia. This coincided in time with the aggravation of the political and ideological confrontation with post-modern Europe, which largely forgot its value roots. Russia came to understand that the European Union had entered into a comprehensive crisis, which made it an unpromising political partner. Having realized that, Russia mentally turned from a European province into the center of rising Eurasia, into a conservative yet forward-looking global, Atlantic-Pacific power, which, I hope, will not have any global commitments, except for maintaining peace and ensuring its vital interests.
Forward: http://karaganov.ru/en/publications/427