Russian Elevation at world stage?
Current world order was actually designed and propelled by Allied powers which were victorious in world war II .Mainly they were USA,UK, France and Soviet Union and later China was given seat in Security Council.
They are the main power which actually run the show, some have larger extent of power and some have lower but Power is mainly divided into these five as now rifts can be seen between China and USA. Soviet union lost to USA in cold war and a unipolar world with maximum power to USA came into being but that doesn’t mean Russia the former foe of USA in form of Soviet union has nothing to play with. Can Russia pose a threat to USA and change the dynamics of world power?
There are some issues which hinders the way of Russia to be elevated taller in the power politics. Political Setup is the first one as USA and its western allies rely on democracy and free market which is actually the back bone of their power as it is very sophisticated system humans have produced although it contains very huge drawbacks of its own but we have to admit with all its flaws that we don’t have any other option.
Whereas Russia a kind of quasi dictator ship as we can see from the example that Putin has made himself president until 2036 and it seems likely that he goes on as he has the absolute powers .One thing that can change this is the freedom of speech that can unveil the underlying corruption and cartel that works out :the one that Alexei Navalny tried to expose and he is now in jail and before that he was given poison-one that is famously used by Russian intelligence to neutralize enemies-but fortunately he recovered . Protests were crushed as expected and he is now in jail for 3.5 years. There are serious structural problems in Russian i.e. political setup which hinders it to elevate into world power.
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Political issues are followed by economic issues as the main political juggernauts and their allies are the ones which benefits from this economic setup .As long as the economic benefits are constrained in few hands society cannot flourish, may be economists can show one on paper that how much a country is earning etc. But the real question is that how that money is being divided into the society or the maximum people are benefitting from that development or a few are taking bath in that Ganges.
Russia holds its clout in western European countries as was seemed in case of Crimea and also Ukraine although Putin has showed some muscles in recent years but they have a long path to go but History offers another great chance for Russia as USA has pulled out from Afghanistan and Russia has links with Taliban as well as other parties and also a stable Afghanistan is in the favor of Russia as it can benefit a lot from a stable Afghanistan rather than a spoiled one and Russian policy is in a right direction when we consider it in this case.
As USA is now in dire need to contain China as QSD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) suggests and it includes India, Australia, Japan .Russia and China which are natural allies collectively can pose a great challenge to USA dominance plans in the future provided that Russia can put its house in order as China did. Russia can learn a lot from China’s case as it remained Political non-democratic according to western views but has changed economically and accepted capitalism as an economic system and they succeeded in running that system efficiently.
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Foreign policy or any other external benefits or threat cannot deliver or deteriorate unless the internal structure is in order.
Russia have to overcome some of its very structural issues in social and political fabric to get benefits in the economic arena as these all are interrelated. Russia can grab a major chunk in global power if it plays its card right and use its energies internally to upgrade its systems and enhance its relationship with its neighbor and specially China and Central Asian states as no country can develop alone regions and a good and healthy competition actually enhance countries power not war.
Author: Ijlal Haider
