The power of words

Our long-suffering country, busy with a permanent rise from its knees, was once again humiliated by malicious subversive centers. In the recently published “Rating of Peaceful Countries of the World” (published annually by the British Institute of Economics and Peace and the analytical service of The Economist magazine), Russia took 131st position, only slightly ahead of such states famous for peace and serene life as Sudan, Somalia and Iraq, Iran and North Korea. And if the last places consistently occupied by our country in the ratings of anti-corruption, freedom of the press, as well as other political freedoms are, in general, well deserved, then in this case a clear injustice has been committed.

Even if we take into account that the compilers of the rating took into account such items as the crime rate, the number of prisoners in the country and reports of the use of force to disperse protests, it still means that they placed Russia among openly aggressive regimes and states militarized to the bone. where the fighting is taking place looks, to put it mildly, incorrectly. At the same time, it was interesting to understand what exactly made British researchers draw such a strange conclusion. Knowledge of how the so-called “think tanks” work in the West does not allow one to proceed from the theory, beloved by Russian propagandists, that a “British woman” will certainly “crap.”

In my opinion, right now we are seeing that words can sometimes turn into deeds. Since last year's speech by Vladimir Putin in Munich, Moscow has decisively changed its foreign policy rhetoric. If we assume that the Kremlin bosses say what they think, then it turns out that we live in the pre-war era. And they say a lot of things: for example, not only that by including Bulgaria, Romania, as well as the Baltic countries, the NATO military bloc has gained multiple superiority over Russia, the insidious Atlanticists are also dragging Ukraine and Georgia there. And when these two countries find themselves in a hostile camp, missiles aimed at Russia will most likely be deployed there. It’s clear that we will aim our missiles at our recent “brothers.” In addition, we will definitely aim missiles at Poland and the Czech Republic, where the Americans, intending to break the strategic balance, are going to deploy elements of a missile defense system. Well, in addition, Russia does not exclude the possibility that it will defend its citizens (that is, those to whom it has distributed Russian passports) in Abkhazia and South Ossetia by force of arms. In addition, she announced that, having sent as many as four ships to the Mediterranean, she had forever destroyed the dominance of the US 6th Fleet there. Vladimir Putin also called training flights of strategic bombers combat duty.

At the same time, it should be recognized that all these belligerent speeches during all the years of Putin’s rule were not supported by any practical actions that could be seriously considered as creating any serious military threat to other states. And this is a little for which we should thank the former head of state. No amount of petrodollars will be enough to sustain an arms race with the leading countries of the world. Let us remember how all the money that the USSR received during the rise in oil prices in the 70s of the last century was spent on the construction of nuclear missiles.

I think that by making statements increasingly filled with militaristic clichés, the Kremlin bosses were counting on the rationalism of their foreign partners. Guys, this is all for internal use, to lift the people’s spirit, you are smart people, you understand that this is all for fun. And it worked at first. People who professionally analyze the state of our army, its combat capabilities, development prospects, reassure their governments - there really is no threat emanating from Russia.

However, right now, it seems, irresponsible words have formed exactly the critical mass that turns them into material force.

Many Russian international relations experts, including the respected authors of Hedgehog, recently wrote with satisfaction that thanks to the “new language” that Moscow now resorts to when communicating with the outside world, we have forced the whole world to respect us. I think that the further we go, the more the West begins to question the rationality of the Kremlin leaders. Yes, Moscow does not have the resources to pursue an aggressive policy, but what if, God forbid, these resources appear? Oil prices continue to rise. And I would not be surprised if, even in the absence of a real threat, the West thinks about some kind of preventive measures.