"Dialogue of Civilizations" in Rhodes

September 3-6 on about. Rhodes (Greece) hosted the Dialogue of Civilizations forum, in which Russia took an active part.

The main organizer of the forum from the Russian side was the "Center of National Glory of Russia", which includes representatives of the Government, the Presidential Administration, the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Central Federal District and other government officials. The Center itself sees as its task the need to “understand why Russia and its people are exactly the way they are. To find out to the end where our come roots from . grow up a new country on “foreign foundations .” The Center's chairman, Alexander Melnik, believes that Russia has a slightly different “historical mission on earth” than Europe. We act as guardians, if I may say so, of a certain secret, which is still unknown to us in its entirety. Russia only guesses about some special purpose of its own ... " .

The forum had a pronounced anti-American character, and the final declaration recorded the desire of its participants to resist the processes of globalization, since "the forced alignment of various cultures into one civilizational model is detrimental to the evolution of mankind" . Anti-globalism itself, of course, is not a sign of conservatism. As well as his definitely religious accent (the Russian delegation was headed by the chairman of the synodal missionary department, Archbishop of Belgorod and Starooskolsky John (Popov)). However, the composition of the forum participants is alarming.

For example, Islam was represented at the forum, in particular, by a member of Hezbollah, the imam of a mosque in Beirut, Khalil Rizka, France - the most prominent ideologist of the European "new right" Alain de Benoist. The Russian delegation included, for example, the Orthodox geopolitician Natalia Narochnitskaya (now a deputy from Rodina), the radical Orthodox-nationalist publicist Mikhail Nazarov, the ideologist of Islamic fundamentalism Heydar Dzhemal (not to mention the chairman of the Center for National Glory of Russia A. Melnik, who, in addition to "Russia's special mission" likes to speculate, for example, about the "Ministry of Shame" into it , designed to protect Russia from the penetration of "spiritual poisons" ).

Meanwhile, the forum, which positioned itself as a public event , clearly received state support from the Russian side. The official delegation included Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Galina Karelova, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Central Bank Tatyana Paramonova and other prominent officials. Moreover, if the Greek and Indian sides were co-chaired by a businessman and a public figure, respectively, then from the Russian side the forum was chaired by Deputy Minister of Railways of Russia Vladimir Yakunin.

Sources

• Melnyk Alexander. The ideology of public service // Literary newspaper. 2003. August 20-26.
• Russian vector dialogue of civilizations // Arguments and Facts. 2003. No. 36.
• Antipova Natalia. Civilized dialogue with a bias // Russia. 2003. September 11th.
• "Dialogue of Civilizations": Rhodes Declaration // Literary newspaper. 2003. November 19-25.