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to the realities of the multipolar world and the consequences of the economic globalisation crisis.
Russia has already abandoned the dollar and the yuanisation of the economy
is proceeding at full steam as Russia adopts the Chinese currency as its foreign exchange of choice. During Xi’s visit to Moscow Putin said that half the mutual trade between the two countries was already settled in yuan and called on the other Eurasian countries to make use of the Chinese currency in international trade deals.
According to the statement, Russia is going to accommodate the world trade and monetary and financial systems, “taking into account the realities of the multipolar world and consequences of the crisis of economic globalisation.” This is aimed at narrowing the possibilities for unfriendly states to “excessively use their monopolistic or dominant stand in certain spheres of the world economy, while enhancing the participation of developing countries in global economic management.” In other words, Putin wants to denude the US of its ability to weaponise the dollar.
Lack of trust
The concept went on to say that diplomacy has been undermined by the growing lack of trust amongst the international community.
Russia itself started that process off with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “new rules of the game” speech in February 2020 that said the Kremlin would no longer tolerate the dual policy towards Russia of doing business with one hand, but applying sanctions with the other.
Lavrov humiliated EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at the same time
and threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Europe if the EU didn’t respond to this new demand. Ironically, Borrell was in Moscow to suggest rolling back tensions with Russia and building more constructive relations based on pragmatic trade development. But as far as the Kremlin was concerned the European offer was too little, too late.
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"The culture of dialogue in international affairs is degrading, and the effectiveness of diplomacy as a means of peaceful dispute settlement is decreasing. There is an acute lack of trust and predictability in international affairs," the foreign policy concept says.
In comments following the release of the concept, Lavrov highlighted the new relations that Russia wants to build, emphasising that Russia is willing to co-operate with any country that treats it as an equal – an echo of his new rules of the game speech – but will “oppose” any country that tries to force its will on Russia.
"In the concept we have explained
our vision of the principles of a more balanced and fair world order. They include polycentricity, the sovereign equality of states, their right to choose models of development, and the world’s cultural and civilisational diversity. The promotion of a multipolar world order is defined as a framework task on all foreign policy tacks," Lavrov said.
Ominously, Lavrov went on to explain that the right to resist impingements on Russia’s sovereignty includes the right to use force, which is a scaling up of potential Russian aggression from Lavrov’s February 2020 speech.
"A provision has been introduced that armed forces can be used to repel or prevent an armed attack on Russia or its allies. This is how we unequivocally state that we will defend the right of the Russian people to exist and develop freely," the minister said at the meeting of the permanent members of the Russian Security Council. "Important modifications have been enshrined
in terms of the conditions for the use
of force for self-defence within the framework of unconditional compliance under Article 51 of the UN Charter."
In a sign of things to come, Putin signed decrees dismissing Russian Ambassador to Latvia Mikhail Vanin and Russian Ambassador to Estonia Vladimir Lipaev on March 31, as they are no longer needed.
Estonia has reduced bilateral relations
with Russia to an absolute minimum since the start of the Russian special military mission. The Estonian Foreign Ministry stated in January 2023 that Russia, in order to achieve parity in the number of employees in embassies, should reduce the number of its employees to 8 diplomatic posts and up to 15 administrative, technical and service staff positions by February 1.
Putin’s long-preferred platform to run his concept of a multipolar world has been the United Nations. He has in the past appealed to the international community to put aside its post-
Cold War rivalries and unite against the global challenges of terrorism, pandemics and climate change, but to little avail.
In 2015 Putin travelled to New York to call for the international community
to form an international coalition against terrorism at his speech during the United Nations annual assembly on September 28.
"We need a genuinely broad alliance against terrorism, just like the one against Hitler," Putin told the delegates assembled in New York, bar the Ukrainian delegation, several of whom walked out of the Security Council chamber as the president walked in.
However, as the speech came only a year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a military separatist movement in the Donbas well underway, even if Putin was sincere, Russian credibility was already in shreds at that time. In a stark admission of Russia’s powerlessness within the UN, the new concept says this platform has been degraded and “artificially devalued.”
"Serious pressure is being put on the UN and other multilateral institutions, the intended purpose of which, as platforms for harmonising the interests of the leading powers, is artificially devalued," the concept reads.
The upshot is that Russia now intends to go it alone, with whatever help it can muster from the likes of China, India and its friends in Africa.