The Kremlin chooses a mosaic system of influences on Western political opinion.
1. Regularly scares the West with nuclear strikes;
2. Regularly scares the expansion of China.
3. Now the music has changed and Moscow is beginning to frighten the West with chaos and unpredictability in the regiment, when Russia loses the war and completely disintegrates.
An article written by Andrei Melnichenko, a major Russian oligarch with a fortune of 20 billion, (born in Gomel, Belarus), in The Economist is indicative.
For some reason, ones see it as a manifestation of the imminent coup in Moscow, the revolt of the oligarchs against Putin.
I have not found anything like this, but a new stage of informational and financial influence on world politicians is obvious in order to bring the peace process closer on Moscow’s demands.
On the one hand, Melnichenko mildly accuses the West of starting the war, which was the result of attempts to take away Russia’s sovereignty and transform it into a peripheral state. (It can be seen that for Russia, war has always been a mechanism for overcoming the peripheral state of the conflict. The war against Ukraine has thus become Russia’s right to self-preservation. Very interesting and absolutely sick logic).
Therefore, Melnichenko continues, in order to stop the war, the West must guarantee Russia the status of a great power, which will designate the form of a regional order and its vital interests (probably at the cost of neighboring countries such as Ukraine and Belarus). And the West must agree with this.
If this does not happen and Russia weakens as a result of the war, it will become chaotic and fragmented, which will become a source of even greater problems for the West, primarily due to the strengthening of China.
Thus, the West faces a simple choice: either accept Russia as a predictive Empire, divide the spheres of influence and continue to coexist, or get uncontrolled chaos and a strong China.
In other words, we are returning to the concept of liberal imperialism with a new face, which was promoted in the early 2000s by Russian liberals and on which the Putin regime grew.
Melnichenko’s article is a manifesto of Russian oligarchic imperialism, regardless of who is in power. He says bluntly that with or without Putin, Russia will remain an empire. Melnichenko is an example of the new (old) imperial thinking, because only the empire gives them resources and the right to live and enrich themselves.
Although with such a treasure as Melnichenko’s, it would be possible to create your own state on the ruins of the empire.
Pavel Usov