Putin's personal globe. What signals does the Kremlin gives the world in the new concept of foreign policy

Vladimir Putin

Gavriil Grigorov / Kremlin Pool / Global Look Press

In the early 1980s, in the midst of the previous Cold War, a comic map was wandering through the newspapers of different countries, which displayed the "world of Ronald Reagan." The USSR, of course, appeared as the "Empire of Evil", China - as "good communes." Western Europe is “socialists and pacifists”, as well as the place where our rockets stand. True, there was also the "land of Thatcher." The Middle East is “Our Oil”, the Persian Gulf - “Our Lake”. This map was a mockery of the seemingly primitive views of the American president. True, unexpectedly some extreme conservatives liked it, as it quite accurately reflected their ideas about the world.

History with geography

And now we will move to 40 years in advance. The Russian president has just signed the next directive paper - the concept of foreign policy . And she offers those who have enough patience to read 44 rather tedious pages, a very specific look at the location of different countries and continents on the planet. In the center of the world, of course, Russia, called the "Civilization Country". But then more curious. One of the main sections of the concept is called “Regional directions of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation”, which, we agree, suggests the geographical principle of description. And the Kremlin offers its own, purely innovative, geography. Russia is surrounded by a “near abroad”, where the Kremlin intends to regulate conflicts and fight “color revolutions”.

All this is placed in the Eurasian Continent, on which Europe is absent as such. “Eurasia” is represented by China, with which Moscow has “comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction”, as well as India, with which the partnership is just “privileged”. In Eurasia, Russia is going to create a “wide integration contour-a large Eurasian partnership-by combining the potentials of all states, regional organizations and associations of Eurasia based on the EAEU, the SCO and the Association of the Southeast Asian states (ASEAN), the conjugation of the development plans of the EAEU and the Chinese initiative“ One Belt ”.

Translated into accessible language, this means: Moscow would like to organize transcontinental transport communications and mutually beneficial commodity exchange. Only now it is not visible to Europe, in theory, to Europe, which is not visible for the authors of the concept on the “Eurasian continent” at all. For a clear reason - in conditions of sanctions and isolation from Russia, goods will not get there. In accordance with the new geography, the “Asia-Pacific region” adjoins the “Eurasian continent” (where the concept does not allow Japan, South Korea, nor the United States). This region is limited by ASEAN countries, with which it is supposed to be mutually beneficial.

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