Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is making a political comeback. He had lost the job of prime minister, after presiding over the unpopular pension reforms and was targeted by Alexei Navalny prior to Navalny's imprisonment for ill-gotten wealth.[1] Medvedev was not even on United Russia's candidate slate in the last elections, although he remained chairman of the ruling party. Now he was recently chosen to carry a message from Putin to Xi Jin Ping. This was followed by his appointment to oversee Russia's military industrial complex.
Part of Medvedev's rise has been facilitated by his metamorphosis from reputed liberal to super-hawk. Another sign of Medvedev's rise is the lengthy article summing up the results of 2022 that he wrote for Rossiskaya Gazeta. Due to the article's length, MEMRI is serializing it in two parts.
Medvedev, once the darling of the West, particularly during the first Obama Administration, claims that the West has backed Ukraine in an effort to first keep Russia down and then destroy it totally. These plans will fail, and while the West thinks it can isolate Russia, the reverse is taking place and the West is isolating itself from the rest of the World. Russia will resume relations with the West only when a generation of sensible Western leaders comes to power. Part I of Medvedev's article titled "Our People, Our Land, Our Truth" follows below: (all emphases, original)[2]
Dmitry Medvedev (Source: Rbc.ru)
The year 2022 is drawing to its end. [It was] a challenging, formidable, dramatic year; a year that marked a threshold of a new era, which is already marked by fundamental changes in everything: from the alignment of global "power centers" to the daily way of life of many people. An inevitable transformation awaits the majority of international institutions (that have been created over many decades).
They have decayed considerably and do not fulfil their tasks. Some of them have become purely decorative, others - are trying to preserve their former influence, though not very successfully. Some are just being formed...
Years and even generations later, historians will, naturally, give a "timeless verdict" on what happened in our day and to how it all ended. Time will judge everyone. The experts of the future will "dust off" the digital information about the events of 2022, quietly turning over its virtual pages and then close the saved files.
But we, simply, don’t have the opportunity to wait for abstractly wise but belated assessments. We live in the here and now. Our world has changed, and it’s forever. And the main thing to understand is where it is heading right now (along with us). What future begins today? What awaits us? And most importantly, how to act. It is of critical importance to find these answers as quickly as possible.
I will express my own stance on the current events. I don’t pretend to detached impartiality, because I’m a direct participant in them. And it’s impossible to be impartial when it comes to the fate of your homeland, our people and the entire world. However, the first thing that all normal, sensible people, regardless of their nationality, really need right now is to keep a sober mind and firm resolve, composure and fortitude, sharp vision [/instincts] and open-mindedness. They must see the true state of affairs in the world and draw conclusions solely on the basis of objective facts and build a logic of their own actions in the same way: by not succumbing to the deceitful words of anyone, (disgusting lies have saturated all foreign information channels). tempting promises, or outright pressure under the guise of defending "true democratic values."
There has been a glut of such examples over the recent decades. It has led to real, and hardly illusory, tragedies and disasters. The past year has fully proven all this to us.
The results are quite clear:
Outcome No. 1. Nazism is nearby, but it shall not pass
Since last winter, the entire world has been living with the dramatic events in and around Donbas. Although, the tragedy began, as we know, much earlier, the "civilized world" didn’t see it [even] at point-blank range.
The Special Military Operation [hereinafter – the SVO] has been underway for ten months now, the objectives of which were originally outlined by President Vladimir Putin. They are: to protect our compatriots in the new territories, which, after referendums held there, became part of Russia; denazification of the disgusting, almost fascist regime of Ukraine; full demilitarization of the Ukrainian state; guarantees against future aggression.
The decision to launch the SVO in February of 2022 was a difficult, compulsory measure, taken under the pressure of circumstances. It wasn’t only about protecting the brotherly republics of Donbass, but also about protecting security and sovereignty of Russia itself, let’s put it bluntly our country’s [very] survival. It was impossible to temporize any longer. This was already evident at the end of 2021, when the North Atlantic Alliance refused to provide guarantees that Ukraine wouldn’t join the bloc. In turn, the Ukrainian drug addicts announced their desire to resurrect the country’s nuclear arsenal.
The fighting in Donbas isn’t just about [taking] populated areas, whose names have now become symbols of the fortitude, patriotism and courage of our soldiers and officers. The SVO is a continuation of our long-standing irreconcilable struggle against bastard neo-fascism and nationalism in all its forms.
We resist against any attempts to humiliate and destroy entire peoples for the sake of self-interested groups, to rewrite history with black paint and blood. Ultimately (and this is obvious today to our enemies as well) we rebuff attempts to limit our development, and then to divide our country. That is the ultimate intention of all those who oppose us. They aren’t even hiding it anymore. They say directly, unashamedly, "Russia must be destroyed."
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The first thing is that all sound-minded people need to do is to draw conclusions from objective facts.
The saddest outcome, not even of the year, but of the decades that have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, is that the lessons of the Second World War have been completely forgotten by Western states. Neo-Nazism found support even in countries that had always stated their rejection of Hitler’s ideology, whose historical memory is full of pain, shame and anger.
We couldn’t stand idly by as the odious nationalist regime of the heirs of [Yevhen] Konovalets, [Stepan] Bandera and [Roman] Shukhevich, [Leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists that collaborated with the Nazis] supported by their masters, sought to reduce to zero not only Russia, but the entire "Russian world," with which hundreds of millions of people proudly identify themselves.
We will make all necessary efforts to ensure that all the goals of the SVO are achieved. And the existence of the disgusting regime of Kyiv nationalists is terminated. No one else can cope with this mission today but us.
Outcome No. 2. Illusions are dispelled; there is much more that divides us from the Western world than what unites us.
Last year was indeed a watershed year. It broke across the knee, the last illusions about the modern Western world, which is so fond (and in vain) of calling itself the "golden billion."
Now it is conclusively clear that in the current configuration the relations of independent and sovereign states with the Anglo-Saxon world there can be no question of trust, no hope in the partners' integrity, or their honoring their word and even their own beautifully stated principles.
Alas, we now have no one and nothing to talk to in the West and, frankly, no reason to do so. The events of the past year annulled the very possibility of a trusting and respectful dialogue with representatives of this global "pole." The only feeling left is squeamish bewilderment: do these people actually consider themselves world leaders, aspire to something global, and dream of dictating their will to others?...
The deeds and actions of current and former Western leaders are striking in their calm and straightforward cynicism. As the former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany recently admitted, the Minsk agreements signed in 2014 were merely a smokescreen to disguise the West’s true intentions. They were conceived to "provide Ukraine with time to become stronger" and grow its military power. In other words, they were originally conceived to prepare for a bloody war. Kyiv’s neo-Nazis have done exactly that, with the full connivance, or direct assistance of the "civilized Europeans."
Unfortunately, we trusted our partners then, not expecting their direct betrayal and open effort to destroy our country. I remember well the 2010 Lisbon NATO-Russia Council, in which I participated in the capacity of Russian President. The members of the alliance convinced us back then that we were not a threat to each other and were ready to cooperate for the common security of the Euro-Atlantic. NATO’s eastward expansion and preparations for confrontation, or, in fact, for war with Russia, did not stop for a single moment. It was an endless murky stream of cynical lies.
Dmitry Medvedev addressing the Russia-NATO Lisbon Summit in 2010 (Source: Ria.ru)
There is also a general crisis of confidence in the so-called "developed countries" and legal institutions they have created. It turns out that fundamental principles of legal relations can easily be scrapped to suit political interests, such as: inviolability of private property and the rule of international law. Western politicians, who have flouted the law, are trying to confiscate Russian assets "without trial," that is, simply to steal it.
And sanctions regimes aimed against us and our allies are being imposed with the stroke of a pen by the narrow-minded Washington functionaries and their European vassals. All of this is the last signal to all other countries: no business can be done henceforth with the Anglo-Saxon world from now on, as it’s the case with a thief, a fraudster, a card sharp, from whom you can expect anything.
We can forget about normal relations with the West for years, maybe decades to come. It is not our choice. We will do without them now, until a new generation of sensible politicians comes to power there. We will be careful and vigilant. We will develop relations with the rest of the world. Fortunately, it is very vast and treats us normally.
Outcome No. 3. The epidemic of Russophobia needs treatment with strong remedies
The year 2022, and at least eight previous years that passed, if we start counting from the "Crimean spring," have been marked by an increase in savage, irrational Russophobia in the Western world. Another acute recrudescence of this infectious foul disease in the West has occurred in recent years.
In timing, it partly coincided with the pandemic of a truly deadly coronavirus infection, a collapsing world economy, a rupture in ties between countries, logistical crises and an aggravation of social problems. Other negative trends, which already made themselves felt, without any pandemic, proved to have an even greater impact.
In order for the West to avoid being held responsible for its own obvious failures, a major enemy had to be "resurrected." [It was required to] rally the ranks to battle it, and in the process get rid of irresolute, or dissenting partners. This is exactly what the western world did. All the more so, one seventh of the world’s landmass was already a greatly irritant for it due to its development. It was growing, getting stronger, not listening to "correct advice" and was pursuing its own, quite successful path.
Limits of traditional decency, following the imposition of illegal, totally boorish sanctions on our country, should no longer constrain us, in any way, in our choice of defense methods.
In order to serve its "masters" and due to its own feeble mindedness, the Kyiv regime desperately seeks to "ban" not only any contact of its citizens and entrepreneurs with Russia, but also any "Russian spirit," Russian culture (even that part of Russian culture that has rightly become a world classic).
In Ukraine, monuments to Russian writers and generals are being demolished, and Pushkin’s streets are being renamed after the scumbag, Bandera. They outlaw the Russian language at schools and in everyday life, put Russian books under the knife. This is a familiar pattern, all that is missing is concentration camps and "Kristallnacht." [Nikolai] Gogol, [Mikhail] Bulgakov, [Kazimir] Malevich, [Anna] Akhmatova, [Vladimir] Vernadsky [All Russian writers, who came from Ukraine], and even [Ukrainian writers] Lesya Ukrainka, or Taras Shevchenko must be rolling over in their graves. All this is accompanied by hysterical convulsions of propaganda and calls to "punish" the unyielding Russia by any means.
Meanwhile, in the West a cynical non-medical "amnesia," as well as a partial loss of "hearing" and "sight" are evident. The things that the Nazi scum [the ZSU?], who flaunt uniforms with swastikas on their sleeves do and have done on the territories under their control is sidestepped with "delicate" silence, which provides these scoundrels with an indulgence for all past and (most importantly) future tortures and murders. However, what can be expected from some European countries, which at one point in history gave birth to National Socialism and Fascism!
It is they who are now responsible for the revival of Nazi ideology. Apparently, phantom pains of lost grandeur recorded among the political class of these countries cannot be relieved temporarily with medications. Despite the fact that the ruling forces [in these countries] dub themselves left-wing or Christian, in reality, they are the true heirs to the cause of NSDAP and the Partito Nazionale Fascista. Sooner or later they will answer for [the crimes of] those, whom they have themselves nurtured themselves.
We have been through this kind of things many times before. Every chronicle has its own antecedent, all the more so, as dirty Russophobia has deep roots. If anything, we should remember not only the twentieth but also the nineteenth century, when anti-Russian hysteria was also raging in the world. The one that [poet and diplomat] F. I. Tyutchev characterized as "let off its leash." Let me recall once again his prophetic words, "They offered Russia purely and simply suicide, a renunciation of the very foundation of its existence, a solemn recognition that it nothing in the world but a savage and ugly phenomenon, an evil that requires correction…"
Suicide or massacre occurred neither in the 19th, nor in the last century. It didn’t happen after World Wars I and II, or the collapse of the USSR. Today, Western countries are once again calling for our country to be multiplied by zero [to be eliminated]. Well, let the strained screamers go hoarse before they soil their trousers.
It’s impossible to trample Russia, and the "Russian world" along with it; it’s impossible to divide it, or subjugate it to the will of others. The meddling hands of the Anglo-Saxons and other countries, who have "sworn to darkness," couldn’t reach us even in the most difficult times. It won’t happen now either.
Outcome No. 4. The West has driven itself into a cage. So, let it sit in isolation
As V. V. Putin recently noted our world has entered a period of revolutionary transformation, and it is fundamental. New development centers that represent the majority of the world community and are ready not only to declare their interests but also to defend them, are being formed
The unfolding events are a direct consequence of a systemic crisis in the West, above all in the US. It’s not just an issue of a slowdown in economic growth and technological progress, or of the crisis in all systems of governance. The problem is wider than that. There is a global ideological and philosophical collapse of the Western world view and world order model. This is particularly tangible in today's realities.
In the early 1990s, the renowned American publicist Fukuyama was quick to proclaim the "end of history," which is realized as a continuous series of wars and confrontations between two world systems: the liberal West and the communist East. Due to the collapse of the USSR, the West believed, the battle was over. But Fukuyama’s prediction failed with a bang.
The West’s dream of a unipolar world, where one can rule and dictate one’s will undividedly, didn't materialize. Furthermore, under present conditions, the West is unable to offer the world any new ideas that could lead humanity forward, solve global problems and ensure collective security.
A curious metamorphosis is happening. Back in the day, the term "Iron Curtain" meant a blockade of undesirable countries, or of alliances that had to be isolated in one way or another from the rest of global society. Now it’s obvious that the Western world gradually turns into a besieged fortress, entrances to which it securely closes from the inside with walls (which are, by the way, often quite real ones), locks and concrete. The West encloses itself in a cage, while the rest of the world lives freely in peace. Good riddance to it [the West]. Let it live on the reservation.
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 9416, Putin Publicly Demotes Medvedev, June 28, 2021.
[2] Rg.ru, December 25, 2022.
