International affairs expert: “Soft power” is outdated, it’s time for Russia to be a “strong peacemaker”
The lightning-fast special operation of the CSTO countries in Kazakhstan for the first time clearly showed the organization as a military-political bloc.
Director of the EAEU Institute Vladimir Lepekhin stated this at a round table in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“From the point of view of geopolitical alignments, the degree of Russia’s responsibility for what is happening in the post-Soviet space is increasing. The number of tension zones is growing, not only the South Caucasus, the whole of Central Asia is becoming a tension zone. And it is clear that Russia today is on the verge of a complete change in its foreign policy.
The concept of “soft power” is already outdated; it has not met any modern requirements for a long time. Instead, the concept of Russia being a strong peacemaker should be adopted as an option. Because the role of Russia’s peacekeeping function in the fairly large Eurasian space is increasing.
Today we have a base of 4 thousand people in Armenia, and peacekeepers of 2 thousand people, and our base in Tajikistan of 6 thousand people, and a peacekeeping function in Transnistria, where the situation is also tense, and in Abkhazia. And now Kazakhstan - the CSTO for the first time has shown itself not just as a political bloc, but as a military-political bloc. And this situation will increase,” the expert said.
“This entire former paradigm – Russia as a “soft power” – participates as a layer in all sorts of unpopular and meaningless negotiations. We need to get away from this.
And the effectiveness of Russian participation in any negotiations and in any conflicts will increase only if Russia develops a strategic line in which there will be fewer references to the Western position, to some Western negotiation formats, which the situation itself demands from Russia more activity.
And, of course, in the situation that is developing in the South Caucasus, we must proceed, first of all, from the interests of the Russian Federation, its influence in this region,” Lepekhin concluded.
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