The world is no more divided into First, Second or Third world and organizations like the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has lost their glitters and need revamping to adjust to the new political scenario in place in the world. We do not have a “Cold War” that is stalling the world. We have a clash of civilizations and Islam is one of the civilizations that are clashing with the Western ideologies. Hence it is a major political block on its own.

Russia is calling for a realignment of forces to form a new political-economic block which Moscow calls the unity of the entire Euro-Atlantic region. This is the new Russia that is going all the way out against the desperately poor New World Order (NWO) proposed by Washington. Though the ‘new Europe’ idea might not take off, the world has definitely entered a new era of cooperation.

"The end of the Cold War provided conditions for building truly equal cooperation among Russia, the European Union, and North America as three branches of European civilization," Medvedev said. "I'm confident that Atlanticism as the only principle has become obsolete historically. Now, we should talk about the unity of the entire Euro-Atlantic region from Vancouver to Vladivostok."

The mention of Vancouver is purely an attempt at showing the Europeans that Canada among all ‘western’ nations would probably be willing to play a major role in a realigned ‘World Order’, thus burying America’s New World Order.

Russia is spearheading forward with new ideas, understanding that there would be more tough challenges if it relies on inaction, and this is causing a major shakeup in Europe. Speaking to the German Council of Foreign Relations in Berlin in June this year, the Kremlin leader President Dmitri Medvedev called for a sweeping new European security pact to replace Cold War-era bodies, which includes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Critics of Moscow’s assertive and positive policies regarding the west say Medvedev is going out of line in his attempt to remodel Russia’s outlook in the global world. The new strategy unveiled by Medvedev is giving the western world the sweat since the East is now positioning itself with more grit and determination to prevent an American empire from dominating the world.

Medvedev announced that a conference to address major issues like the credit crunch and rising food prices would be held in Russia later this year.

"Russia is a global player and understands its responsibility for the fate of the world," he said.

"We want to participate in setting the new rules of the game," he said, much to the irritation of western cum capitalist journalists and editors who responded with heavy criticism of the speech by Medvedev.

The new Russian foreign policy outline could be similar to that of Venezuela, which is one of rejection of Washington’s New World Order. Venezuelan President Chavez warned the US that its NWO will fail because the US was unjust, greedy and unfair.

 

Medvedev on his part sternly warned on June 5 that further expansion of NATO would damage the West's relationship with Moscow. Chavez has put the US on the tight rope with his coalition of the ‘leftist’ forces from Bolivia to Venezuela in South America and this alliance seem to be lurching towards a possible alliance with Moscow, Beijing and even Teheran. The landmark deals for the new alliance already exists with the Shanghai Corporation Organization (SCO) which already regroups China and Russia while Iran is given the observer status. While the SCO tend to remain stagnant on many other issues – it is basically an economic forum that has a few other former Soviet states as member – it is also a balancing tool that caters for the security of the borders between the member states.

Few expect the idea of replacing NATO with a new security alliance to gain any traction among western states reason being the western business leaders in particular and politicians altogether are too distracted with the super powerful USA. They are living with the beliefs that the USA will be the ultimate savior of the European world in the event of a massive conflict or crisis in the globe. This is pitiful since the Americans have proven their worth as a destructive force more than once rather than being a constructive force.

Medvedev is conciliatory but former President Vladimir Putin, known as the architect of the New Russia, is not toning down his anti-Western criticism attacking the West over Kosovo, Iran and Nato expansionism. During a recent visit to France, Putin accused the US of behaving like a "a frightening monster" abroad – explaining Washington’s foreign policy in one sentence in the process.

In the mean time, worried of the policies put forward by Medvedev, the western media and business circle (as well as the political circle) is rushing to praise first deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. The west want to turn him into their darling for his pro-market views, hoping with gaping mouths that Shuvalov could supersede Medvedev and Putin in the near future.

Is the west planning an overthrow of the current leadership in Moscow? It is plausible since the current administration is very anti-American and this causes unease in the western media and among the governments in Europe and indeed in Washington.

Under the current administration in Moscow, Washington has little opportunity to meddle in the affairs of Russia, thus putting it far off its objectives of having to know everything about the Russian government and to be able to pull all the strings in the Russian power game.

Moscow seems to be the last frontier in the world where smaller nations and countries that are of different leaning than the US can find support. The Muslim world was granted Moscow’s entire and at times unsollicitated support on several issues. In the UN’s Security Council the Russian position is clear: No to American hegemonic and empirical resolutions.

Moscow’s support for Iran and its diversion (that is not total support) in the war on terrorism irked Washington and the media in the west mistreated Putin for that. However, the craftsman of the new Russian era dismissed all these criticism and is now backing his handpicked successor Medvedev in the same direction that he took while he was in power.

Trade, oil and gas, geopolitical strategies and its new role as the arbiter of peace in several parts of the world has put Russia right in the forefront of a confrontation with the US and the west. The west, silently supportive of an American empire and of its colonial attitudes, is altogether angered by the Russian powerhouse.

It must be noted that after Boris Yeltsin, Russia has changed for the better. Despite the hiccups that the new Russian powerhouse is displaying at times, the result is there and this is cause for more anxiety among the West. Russia will be able to draw the bulk of investors who are now capitalizing on their investments in Europe and the Middle East. Moscow will also become more dominant in the energy sector – a sector in which Europe is greatly dependent on Russia.

The Russian ‘democracy’ came under fire from Washington, London and other European capitals accusing Moscow of projecting a ‘controlled democracy’. The west wanted to keep full control of the NGO’s they register in Russia – which then transfers funds to anti-Putin supporters in some case – but the Kremlin decided otherwise and transformed the rules for NGO’s in Russia. This angered Britain and the US in particular but an awkward situation dealing with the type of Christianity that should be practiced in Russia became a major issue recently.

The Russians refused to accept what they call the ‘American’ evangelistic type of Christianity since they prefer their orthodox Christian faith. This too angered the US, particularly its Presidential Palace the White House.

Amidst the political differences between the West and Russia, the economic differences became more pronounced after Russia practically nationalized its oil and gas industry in the middle of a major outcry by the Western governments. This episode created larger fissures in the relations between Russia and the West.

The Russian control of its economic giants and of the resources of the country is called ‘mafia’ interference by the west. Mafia literally means gangs with heavy war machineries but with highly placed political support. The west implying that the Putin regime was supportive of mafia style organizations that took over most of the resources and giant corporations of Russia. This too led to the massive division in vision and in thoughts that is existent today between Russia and the West.

In an attempt to banish part of this misconception of the westerners towards it, Russia’s Medvedev offered the olive branch but it was quickly overlooked by the west which remains adamant as usual.

Medvedev made a big push towards reconciliation and cooperation with the west while in Germany, putting emphasis on trade, economy and bilateral business cooperation.

“Trade has increased significantly in recent years," Medvedev told reporters. "It has exceeded the threshold of $50 billion and, of course, we don't want to stop there. I'm sure there is every opportunity to expand our trade and economic cooperation."

While Medvedev said he was "concerned about the current trend of narrowing mutual understanding in Euro-Atlantic policies," he also praised Germany for taking a "constructive position" in helping push forward a stalled partnership agreement between Russia and the European Union.

Germany may eventually turn out to be a partner of Russia in many avenues of interest but the EU, important to Germany now, might be the stumbling block in that relationship. It might just force the Germans to keep a low profile in its relationship with Moscow while it is expected to lead the way in the pan-EU stream.

The NWO of the US is such that any mistakes or misgivings from the west are acceptable while any good solutions from non-western nations would be compromising and is debatable at best. This is the kind of policy that will put Moscow off in its dealings with the western nations. The Russians are very well aware of that but the rapprochement offered by Medvedev has its silver lining…it is a pure attempt at breaking the American hegemony in the western world and it is an offer for a different ball game than the American absolute domination in terms of policies.

In Moscow, the belief is that the western regimes in Europe, Canada, and Australia are blinded by the promises of the US for a secure, progressive and western dominated world. In a bid to break this dream, Moscow threw its weight and its new found wealth in front of the Europeans. Germany will be a taker but on political terms, Berlin and Moscow are far apart on Iran and Lebanon as well as on Palestine – three thorns in the Muslim world.

Perhaps Russia should try cementing its relationships with China, Saudi Arabia and some other Muslim nations in a bid to create a new political block that would have greater power and would be in a greater position to counter the American empire.

The world is no more divided into First, Second or Third world and organizations like the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has lost their glitters and need revamping to adjust to the new political scenario in place in the world. We do not have a “Cold War” that is stalling the world. We have a clash of civilizations and Islam is one of the civilizations that are clashing with the Western ideologies. Hence it is a major political block on its own.

The world is also divided into major economic blocks and the Islamic block is the weakest among these blocks, with the Western Capitalist Block as the dominant segment in world economics. The US, Britain and Germany are the leading nations in this block and it is interesting to note that the Western Economic Block is not as harmonious as it seems to be.

The western world is hoping that with the US’s war and colonial strategies, it will secure enough energy and resources to keep its domination of the world. But this domination is sapping and slipping away from their fingers at a rapid rate. Moscow’s rejection of the western NWO is a blow to the Americans and the Europeans but will Moscow’s realignment policies pay off?

On the other hand, Russia could become a major partner to the Muslim world, an idea which World Futures suggested a year ago in an article entitled the New Russia and could drag China in this economic block that could by all means cause the western economic balloon to pop out and fizzle. Add Venezuela and its alliance of the left in Southern America and the fizzling of the western hegemony could be just perfect.

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