The West and Russia

Among the longest running news stories of recent years is the alleged interference by Russia in the American presidential elections. This most recent election saw heightened claims that Russia had a hand in deciding the outcome of the process. It is alleged that Russian governmental authorities hacked the personal emails of the Democratic Party’s candidate, Hillary Clinton and other important Democrat’s personal correspondence so as to have an exposé of their alleged wrongdoings, so that the electorate could reject them and vote for the Republican Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump.

During the elections campaign, Mr Trump was viewed as having a friendlier attitude to Russia than Mrs Clinton. This perception was widespread in both Russia and America.

Russian authorities have denied interfering in the American Elections to influence a regime change. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin remarked that America was “no banana republic” where regime changes by foreign involvement was a simple operation.

Putin was quoted in the media as saying that America was a great country and such things could not happen there. Although Mr Putin meant to be slightly sarcastic, what he was saying did have a great deal of truth.

American democracy and the intelligence of the American people are far too established and engrained for any foreign country to bring about a regime change in that country by propaganda or manipulation of politicians’ correspondences, no matter how damning. We are quite sure that the American Presidential Election was a properly run democratic election and basically expressed the will of the American people. And like many others, we do not feel there is any reason to question the outcome of the process.

If indeed President Trump is committed to improving United States-Russia relations, such could be a constructive diplomatic approach, and would be of great benefit to the world as a whole and most important, would be strengthening the West.

Some American popular thinking is anachronistic and belongs to the Cold War era where Russia was the enemy. Though the Cold War had been won by America and the West, and the USSR has disintegrated and the once-socialist Republic Russia is now a free-market country, some people are still entrapped in the past.

It is now more necessary than ever for the West to unify itself and preserve its strength in the face of the emergence of a resurgent Asia. For most of the 20th century, the West had been engaged in self-destructive civil wars. World Wars 1 and 2 destroyed Western Empires and Western influence in the world was greatly diminished; and Western economic prosperity has begun to contract. For example, we do not produce our consumer goods anymore; they are all imported from East Asia.

Centuries ago the centre of gravity in the world was in the Asiatic Heartland. The Indians and Chinese and others such as Japan and Indonesia produced most of the world’s products and were responsible for the world’s civilization. Most of the world’s wealth was centred in those areas.

Then we had our Renaissance and the Asiatic Heartland fell into an unexplained somnolence. With the Renaissance, the centre of gravity shifted and the West emerged as the most important part of the world.

Now, it seems the cycle is once again moving to the Asiatic Heartland. It is therefore now necessary more than ever for the West to consolidate, and integration of Russia with the rest of the West is therefore essential. President Trump’s desire for better relations with Russia is therefore a very positive step.