Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov centered his latest article, "Containing Russia: Back to the Future," around a "striking discrepancy" between the foreign policy aspirations of Washington and Moscow. Lavrov attributes its existence to the ideological focus of US foreign policy and Washington's refusal to tolerate a multipolar world order. "Under the circumstances, powerful political forces on both sides of the Atlantic seem determined to launch a debate over whether Russia should be contained," Lavrov wrote in the article.
Lavrov is aiming to win over the Americans, while the United States itself is launching an ideological war. Officially, it is not a war on Russia; it is a war on the revival of "authoritarian capitalism." But the important point is that Russia and China are regarded as the leading representatives of authoritarian capitalism.
In making excuses, Russia forgets about the presumption of innocence - its own innocence. As far as the Americans are concerned, the principle doesn't apply to Russia. So how can we expect a productive dialogue?
America has never known an international partnership on an equal footing. It will never accept that unless forced to do so. Left to their own devices, the Americans will never halt their expansion. America's messianic nature can be seen in the Middle East. It is a source of wars there. Will these wars expand?
The United States is an intensely ideological country. Its ideology is based on the assumption that America is the best, simply because it is America, "the freest country in the world." Hence the conviction that America is destined to bring the light of liberation and "progress" to the world, precisely as these concepts are understood in the United States itself. America tolerates no objections. It cannot be taught otherwise by articles in newspapers. Trust history itself to teach Washington to hold its ambitions in check; the alternative is too horrible to contemplate. The Americans are apparently determined to learn what the alternative is because they are busily involved in war preparations.
The West is clearly irritated by Moscow's demands for equal - not "nominally equal" - partnership with the United States. As far as the Americans are concerned, an equal partnership is impossible without equal strength. If Russia insists on equality, then it apparently intends to regain strength equal to that of the United States. Equality of strength is not an idea favored by the Americans; they prefer US superiority. If equality is what we are truly after, then we have to work for that equality, step by step - without expecting any support or help from the Americans. Nobody in America will ever tolerate the idea of permitting Russia to become equal.
This process of evening out, even restriction of US action by the UN or international law - all this is viewed in Washington as a hidden threat to American interests.
Russia is trying to reach America on the level of new contacts in all fields. America is not being exactly cooperative. Whether it understands it or not, the United States wants a new bipolar world order. The idea is attractive to politicians, sponsors, and analysts in Washington more than to their counterparts in Moscow.
