Davos lowered everyone from the mountains into the trenches

The word "failure" does not yet sound, but Western media write about "deep problems." The only senior speaker to talk about specifics was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Bloomberg reported that it listed recession countermeasures amid the energy crisis. But trade relations between the United States and the European Union are tense, a correspondent for The Moscow Post reports.

It also turned out that it took very little time and the slogan: "Russia should suffer a strategic defeat!"

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev in his Telegram channel reacted to these statements: "Nuclear powers did not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends," he wrote.

VEF-2023 takes place on the very days when eighty years ago, on January 18, 1943, Soviet troops broke through the corridor along the southern bank of the Ladoga. German and Finnish, as well as Spanish divisions, then surrounded the city. In just 18 days, 33 km of railway track and crossing the Neva were built. In February, trains with food, fuel and ammunition went to Leningrad.

It was the day of the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad

Russian President Vladimir Putin, while on January 18 in St. Petersburg, where the 80th anniversary of the breakthrough of the blockade was celebrated, recalled during a meeting with blockade veterans that the lands that are liberated from neo-Nazis during the SVO historically belong to Russia, but after the collapse of the USSR they went to Ukraine.

Further, during a meeting with workers at the Obukhov plant, he recalled that the Russian "defense industry produces about the same amount of air defense missiles for various purposes per year as all military-industrial enterprises in the world produce," he said and named the terms of the future victory. "This is the unity and cohesion of the Russian and generally multinational Russian people. This is the courage and heroism of our fighters as part of a special military operation and on the front line. And, of course, the work of the military-industrial complex, enterprises like yours, and people like you, and the entire economy. "

Russia did not take VEF-2023 part in the forum. Maybe the organizers of the forum still remembered that in November 2021, Vladimir Putin, speaking at the session, said that the pandemic aggravated the problems and imbalances accumulated in the world, about the risks of growing contradictions, weakening international institutions, and the degradation of the global security system.

Even then, he noted that "the degree of foreign policy, propaganda rhetoric is growing," that "playing without rules critically increases the risks of the unilateral use of military force." This was three weeks before Washington and Brussels received the draft agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States on security guarantees and an agreement on security measures for the Russian Federation and NATO.

How to continue to live?

The draft documents were handed over to Westerners by the Russian Foreign Ministry. The year for Russian diplomacy turned out to be more eventful than ever. Let's say, as is customary among writers: "Time has accelerated its run." "What is happening now in Ukraine is the result of many years of preparation of the United States and their satellites for the start of a global hybrid war against the Russian Federation," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on January 18 during a press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2022.

'We defended our safety. They made a bridgehead from Ukraine to attack Russia, undermining our interests. In the Sea of ​ ​ Azov, it was planned to build naval bases, primarily Anglo-Saxon, "Lavrov added, answering questions.

"We will still defend our truth!," The experienced diplomat added and made, perhaps, a confession that surprised his subordinates: "But how to continue to live, I have no idea yet, everything will depend on what conclusions Europe will make," the minister said.

Is it possible to count on the fact that those "who so quickly helpfully supported the aggression against the Russian Federation" will change their views on Russia? Most likely, you should not count on it. The crisis will be prolonged, as the minister himself said.

This, in particular, was confirmed by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö with her "primitive monologue" about Russia's actions in Ukraine. Some foreign media and even Channel One of Russian television paid attention to the fact that by the time of VEF-2023 's behavior, the influx of elite "night butterflies" into Davos had intensified. So, a forum participant from Helsinki, with all her high-ranking appearance and tone, speaking at a VEF-2023 session, recalled that escort women are also found in big politics.

"It is a pity that everything created in Europe with the largely leading role of Finland was brought down to a large extent by the efforts of Finland itself," Lavrov said on this occasion and added that the speed of the change of position of the recently neutral and friendly neighboring country surprised Moscow. Separately, he noted that "Germany has become united, primarily thanks to the Soviet Union." Berlin also forgot everything.

On January 10, the European Union and NATO signed the Declaration on Cooperation, officially uniting into the EuroNATO Union. It "proclaimed a deliberately confrontational agenda," Europe is "built" by the United States. No one will allow Europe to talk about "strategic autonomy," Lavrov said.

In his opinion, it will take time to form a multipolar world, the final registration of relations necessary for democracy, justice to reign in the world and the principle of the UN Charter is respected, Lavrov concluded, noting that "relations in the same format between Russia and Western countries will no longer be."

Russia before choosing

The fact that the EU lost independence long before the signing of the declaration with NATO was known. Lavrov noted that "European industry is already starting to move to the United States," Europe's competitiveness is falling. He recalled that in 2004, after the first "Maidan" in Ukraine, for the first time from the lips of European officials, it sounded: "Ukraine must choose with whom it is with the West or Russia."

In 2023, Russia also faced a choice, or rather the need to make a choice and "close the window to Europe." In particular, the Government supported the proposal of the Russian Foreign Ministry not to make payments to the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) last year. Shortly before that, Vladimir Putin submitted to the State Duma a bill on the termination of international treaties between Russia and the Council of Europe (six documents). And the European Parliament called for the creation of a "tribunal" for events in Ukraine. The resolution, which has no legal force, was adopted at the session in Strasbourg.

Lavrov admitted that Russia was "held" when signing documents that related to Moscow's relations with the West, including NATO, the OSCE, the agreement on resolving the crisis in Ukraine of February 2014 under the guarantees of the three countries of the EuroNATO Union, as well as the Minsk agreements. Nevertheless, one can imagine that those diplomats in Moscow who understood who they were dealing with, all understood and "held" the process within the protocol to the last. Maybe out of courtesy, maybe for other reasons. Did you have to buy time too?

Is diplomacy ready for a twist?

Now the difficult tasks of reorienting trade relations to Asia are being solved, primarily to China and India. Whether Russian diplomacy is ready for such a turn and what the strategy of such a turn may be, the minister did not explain. Maybe the time hasn't come. He said, however, that "relations with the People's Republic of China are going through the best times in the entire history of cooperation," put in first place the Joint Statement of February 4, 2022, signed during the visit of the President of Russia to the PRC.

The volume of trade this year between Russia and China is already a record, Lavrov said. Moscow and Beijing have close coordination in the international arena, including the UN, in the fight against new challenges and threats through the SCO, BRICS. There is a harmonization of relations between the EAEU and the Chinese project "One Belt, One Way." The partnership strengthens military and military-technical cooperation, joint exercises.

But the scale of investment cooperation between Russia and China is not yet consistent with its potential. The volume of accumulated direct investments of Chinese companies in Russia at the beginning of 2022 (data from the Bank of Russia) amounted to $3.3 billion, while, for example, investments in Austria were accumulated by $7.9 billion, in Germany - $25.4 billion, in Italy - $4.8 billion.

As Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday, speaking at the Russian-Turkmen Business Forum, the West is putting gross pressure on Russia and its partner countries that this is a time of great challenges, but also new opportunities.

Need economic diplomacy

Lavrov admitted that China is much deeper integrated into modern processes of globalization. The PRC has immeasurably more than ours, the economy, foreign exchange reserves stored in Western currencies. For the PRC, the exit from Western dependence is much more difficult. "This was facilitated to a certain extent by the imposed" landslide "sanctions, which made it possible to draw the final conclusion that these people who" invited "us to their economic system are no longer something to rely on, they cannot be trusted," the minister said.

But it may be necessary to restore the relationship. This was stated in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on Thursday and. about. Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Kirill Logvinov. "Basically, it's explainable. The EU will still have to negotiate with us on the basics of conflict-free coexistence, "he said. Against the background of the official policy of Brussels, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of European countries continue to work in the Russian Federation. Russian companies also do not intend to refuse to work in the EU.

Under the new conditions, Russia will have to formulate the goals and principles of what is commonly called "economic diplomacy," which will cover countries and regions of the world, Russian regions and sectors of economic activity, coordinate all these diverse interests from one federal center, withstanding the country's strategic priorities. There are enough resources for this, they must be disposed of correctly, in a modern way.

"That is why we are now, within the framework of our contacts with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in the BRICS, in other structures, of course, the CIS, the Eurasian Economic Union, and in cooperation with the associations of Asia, Africa, Latin America, we try in every possible way to build new forms of interaction so as not to depend on the West," said Sergey Lavrov. Although Moscow will do everything to ensure that the West has sobering up in the Ukrainian issue, he said on Thursday at a press conference following a meeting of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation and Belarus.

The very theme of this year's Davos Forum - "Cooperation in a Divided World" - only causes a sarcastic smile and makes you think about what life should look like after death, Kommersant noted.

And the head of the European Commission still continues to dig a trench, for himself!