🌎🌏 Recent processes, especially the crisis in the Middle East, may open a new chapter in how most countries around the world perceive the policies of the United States and Europe, as well as make it impossible to return to the previous world order.

Israel's confrontational policy does not pose a direct threat to Russia, the United States or China, the main powers of the modern world, and they are not going to cross their swords over what the Middle East region should look like after the events of this fall. But it would be short-sighted to underestimate the detrimental effect that some features of the position chosen by the West have had on the credibility of the United States and its allies among the world community. 

The West is erasing its own previous achievements. A huge part of the world's population has clearly become convinced of the boundless cynicism and duplicity of the political elites, brought to the top of the power hierarchy by the vaunted democratic system.

Due to their obsession with the current election cycle and their own career ambitions, the current leaders of the West aren’t hesitating to jettison the enormous achievements of past years in building trust in international relations and a balance of interests at the global level, writes Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/how-the-world-majority-sees-the-consequences/

#Asia_and_Eurasia #UnitedStates #EU #WorldMajority

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🇪🇺 The Ukrainian crisis itself was, to a certain extent, the result of the fact that the continental Europe has lost all ability to be strategically independent.

This occurred as part of a gradual process that combined the consequences of the events of the middle of the last century and the failure of attempts to build a genuine political union on the basis of European integration, combining this with the expansion of the membership and the creation of a common economic policy through financial instruments within the Eurozone.

The actual position of Europeans in world politics is increasingly consistent with how we might see it in terms of abstract assessments of the relationship with the United States and their ability to act independently, Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/consequences-of-europe-s-strategic-failure/

#Asia_and_Eurasia #EU #Europe

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⛔️ Amid the second anniversary of the start of the Special Military Operation (SVO) in Ukraine, a number of Western countries and associations launched a new set of sanctions against Russia, as expected.

💢 The most significant package of restrictive measures was introduced by the United States. More than 500 Russian citizens and organisations were included in the list of blocked entities. Secondary sanctions against a number of companies from third countries cooperating with Russia can be considered equally common. 

💢 As for the EU, the new sanctions have their own characteristic: 87 organisations and 105 individuals were included in the lists of blocked persons. However, even here the structure of the distribution of sanctions changes little. The new secondary EU sanctions have become peculiar. A number of companies from Turkey, Thailand, Kazakhstan, China, Serbia, India, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Sri Lanka have been listed in Annex IV of Regulation 833/2014.

💢 The UK has extended blocking financial sanctions to a number of large Russian industrial companies. The country has also decided to introduce secondary sanctions against Russia’s partners from third countries, but unlike Brussels, it has applied the mechanism of blocking sanctions to them. They include companies from Turkey, China, the UAE and Switzerland. 

💢 The lists of blocked persons have also been expanded or are about to be expanded by Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 

In quantitative terms, the number of Russian companies and citizens subject to restrictive measures was indeed high. However, the latest wave of sanctions does not bring qualitative changes - their impact on the Russian economy and its relations with foreign partners is unlikely to be fundamental, writes Ivan Timofeev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/new-sanctions-against-russia-taking-a-swing/

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #sanctions #UnitedStates #EU #UK

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🇪🇺 The European Union’s Green Deal must be criticised for three reasons:

▪️ it is dogmatic, because it does not provide for alternative scenarios;

▪️ it is economically highly problematic, because it burdens industry in Europe with costs and uncertainties and therefore restricts its international competitiveness;

▪️ it is technologically immature and unrealistic: neither the market-ready technologies nor the financial means to implement the Commission’s goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 are available.

Pursued under the concept of the Green Deal, the energy transition has been one of the strongest and most damaging factors influencing the economy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and therefore the economy of Europe. This policy is primarily being pursued by Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission and Olaf Scholz’s cabinet.

Any measure that hinders the supply of affordable energy to Europe, such as the continuation of sanctions or a premature withdrawal from long-term gas supply contracts, will cause massive damage to the European economy and set the EU back by years, if not decades, Ulrike Reisner writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-dark-side-of-brussels-energy-policy-the-green/

🖇️ Earlier this year, we published the first and the second part of this analysis.

#GlobalAlternatives #EU #energy

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❓🇪🇺 On the eve of the next elections to the European Parliament (EP), which are due to take place on June 6-9, 2024, the attention of experts, as usual, is on the Eurosceptic parties, which are once again predicted to increase their presence.

In the most general terms, Euroscepticism reflects an attitude of protest regarding deepening European integration, the transfer of states’ sovereign power to the supranational level and the power of European political elites at the expense of democratic legitimacy and transparency.

But is Euroscepticism as dangerous as they say, and will it be possible to shake the positions of the ruling centre-right coalition led by the European People's Party (EPP), asks Daria Moiseeva, senior research fellow at IMEMO RAS.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/eurosceptics-in-the-european-parliament-a-failed-a/

#WiderEurasia #EU #EuropeanParliament #Euroscepticism

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