Russia does not yield to foreign pressure and will fight for its interests as long as it takes, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.
"Russia was simply put before this line. Either give it all up or fight. But as long as we have people like you and the guys who are next to you, of course, we can give up nothing. (We) must only fight. Only [go] forward. Carefully. Calmly," he said speaking with soldiers of the southern military district.
During his meeting with soldiers, Putin also noted that there is still much space for improvement, including development and production of loitering ammunition, precision weapons and means of communication.
Additionally, the president stated that armed combat was inevitable under present circumstances, however, the active support of the people was essential and Russia could not live without it. Putin also urged soldiers to take care of themselves, if possible.
Putin visited the headquarters of the Southern Military District this morning where he talked to commanders and presented banners to army corps, including from Donetsk and Lugansk, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the president also presented awards to servicemen who showed courage and heroism during the special military operation.
Putin Awards Commander of Russian Forces in Ukraine With High Military Award
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday presented a state award to Sergei Surovikin, the general in charge of Russia's military operation in Ukraine.
Surovikin was awarded the Order of St. George, third class, for his courage, bravery and dedication. Mikhail Teplinsky, commander of the Russian Airborne Troops, also received a high military award from the Russian President.
On October 8, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Surovikin as the commander of the Russian Joint Group of Forces in the zone of a special military operation.
Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, following calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. In response, Western countries and their allies have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and ramped up their financial and military support of Kiev.
Highlights of Putin's New Year's speech:
It is noted that last year was a year of important events that laid the foundation for Russia's future and independence.
He stated that the truth is on the side of Russia, which protects its people in its historical area.
I remind you that for years Western elites have been convinced of their peaceful intentions, including in Donbass, but are actually supporting neo-Nazis.
Thank you to the special ops participants for their grit and courage: millions of people are with you in heart and soul.
Express belief that Russia will overcome all difficulties, keep the country great and independent.
The Russian MoD’s briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:
Russian Forces eliminated more than 50 Ukrainian servicemen, as well as destroyed two armored combat vehicles and three pick-up trucks near Kupyansk;
Russian servicemen eliminated up to 140 Ukrainian troops, as well as destroyed five tanks, seven armored combat vehicles and four pick-up trucks near Krasny Liman;
Russian troops eliminated more than 80 Ukrainian servicemen, as well as destroyed two armored carriers, four armored vehicles and three pick-up trucks near Donetsk;
The Russian Army eliminated up to 50 Ukrainian troops, as well as destroyed three infantry combat vehicles, two armored combat vehicles and five pick-up trucks in the Zaporozhye region;
Russian Forces hit 75 Ukrainian artillery units at their firing positions;
The Russian Army destroyed five US-made AN/TPQ- 50 radar stations in the DPR;
Russian troops destroyed two Ukrainian artillery ammunition depots in the DPR and in the Zaporozhye region;
Russian Forces destroyed four US-made M777 artillery systems in the DPR;
The Russian Army destroyed a Czech-made "Dana" self-propelled howitzer in the LPR;
Russian Air Forces shot down two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters in the DPR;
On December 30, 2022, the world marked the100th anniversary of the establishment of the Soviet Union. For some people, the first socialist state was the bane of their existence, while for others it was a glimmer of hope for a better future, an image of humankind united in peace and equality.
Sputnik discussed the ups and downs of the USSR with Geoffrey Roberts, professor of history at University College Cork, Ireland, a leading scholar on Soviet diplomatic and military history. The researcher elaborated on the main principles of the Soviet state and its deep impact on the global history.
Sputnik: The USSR was intended to be "a voluntary association of peoples with equal rights," one that would guarantee the "peaceful coexistence and fraternal cooperation of peoples" while serving as "a faithful bulwark against world capitalism." How did the formation of the USSR change world politics and diplomacy for the next 70 years?
Geoffrey Roberts: You have to remember that the USSR was formed with a view to the spread of revolution from Russia to other countries. The Bolsheviks expected other revolutionary states to join the USSR and that eventually there would be a global socialist federation that would replace the system of sovereign states.
The Russian revolution remained isolated but the Bolsheviks did not abandon their global socialist aspirations. They adapted to peaceful coexistence with the capitalist world but continued to support socialist movements in other countries.
The Bolsheviks were internationalist socialists. Frombeginning to end the USSR championed the struggle for peace and liberation from imperialist oppression.
For more than seven decades it stood as radical, socialist alternative to western capitalism.
Sputnik: What was absolutely new that the USSR managed to introduce, both for its own people and abroad?
Geoffrey Roberts: It was the world’s first socialist country, a system based on public ownership, state planning, social welfare and egalitarianism. It showed that such a system was not utopian but a practical possibility; indeed, at times the Soviet system threatened to economically outperform even the most advanced capitalist countries.
Certainly, the Bolsheviks succeeded in building a world industrial power, one that defeated Nazi Germany and then fought the United States to a standstill during the cold war. A system that created the military, economic, scientific, technical and cultural power that underpins the strength of contemporary Russia.
Of course, the Soviet socialist system was highly flawed: it was bureaucratic, repressive and often corrupt. One should never forget the millions of innocent people who fell victim to Stalin’s fanatical determination to defend communist power from those he saw as its enemies.
Even so, the USSR inspired a great deal of idealism and popular support throughout its existence. Tens of millions of people around the globe look back on Soviet socialism with nostalgia. Even those like me, who were socialist critics of system's authoritarianism and lack of democracy have to admit that it had many virtues as well as vices.
Sputnik: Do you believe the core idea of such a state was viable? Was it somehow ahead of its time?
Geoffrey Roberts: The USSR had two core ideas: socialism and multinationalism. This was a highly viable combination and the USSR would still exist today had it not been the destabilizing impact of Mikhail Gorbachev's economic and political reforms in the late 1980s. Gorbachev aimed to revitalize and democratize the Soviet system but his failed reforms opened the door to nationalists and liberals who wanted to collapse communism and fragment the multinational USSR.
As a multinational state, the USSR has been described as an 'affirmative action empire' – which sought to end Russian ethnic oppression and domination of minority nations and establish harmonious relations between the state’s different nations and ethnic groups.
As internationalists the Bolsheviks, were implacably opposed to nationalism – which they saw as a distraction from class struggle and progress towards communism. But they were willing to countenance and encourage cultural nationalism – the expression of national identity – as long as it didn't threaten communist party rule and was compatible with the values of socialism. At the same time, they sought to foster a common Soviet identity, a patriotism that encompassed people of all nations and ethnicities.
The disintegration of the USSR has served to obscure the success of the Bolsheviks and their communist successors in creating a common Soviet identity. Not long before the USSR collapsed, Gorbachev staged a referendum on the continuation of a multinational Soviet state – a goal that was endorsed by the great majority of voters.
Another measure of the deep roots of Soviet patriotism is its continuation in contemporary Russia. As a multinational state, the Russian Federation is the direct successor of the USSR – a Russia that is headed by a President – Vladimir Putin – who continues to promote citizenship and patriotism as the foundation of the system, albeit one that is also conservative and capitalist.
Sputnik: Was the collapse of the USSR inevitable?
Geoffrey Roberts: Not at all. It is probably true to say that by the early 1990s the Soviet communist system was doomed – the best prospect being its gradual replacement by a mixed economy similar to the social democracy of, say, Scandinavia.
The disintegration of the Soviet state system was another matter. The USSR didn't just fall apart; it was broken up by Boris Yeltsin and other local leaders who utilised local nationalist movements as part of their power grab. Interestingly, while Yeltsin unleashed the forces of Russian ethnic nationalism and then pursed the so-called shock economic therapy of the 1990s – the spirit of multinational Soviet patriotism prevailed in post-Soviet Russia.
It is one of the most striking features of the conduct of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, though there are strong ultra-nationalist elements who would like the war to transform into some kind of nationalist-ethnic struggle.
Russia has been conducting a special military operation in Ukraine since February 24.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Moscow will not allow the West to use Ukrainian people in order to weaken Russia.
“The West is using the people of Ukraine to split Russia and weaken it; we will never let it happen,” Putin said during his New Year address to the nation on Saturday.
He also stressed that “moral, historical rightness” is on Russia’s side.
The remarks come after the Russian president pointed out last week that Russia is open to a dialogue with all the sides on the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, but that they have so far refused to negotiate.
"The policies of our geopolitical opponents, aimed at splitting up Russia, are at the roots of the Ukrainian conflict,” Putin said.
Referring to Moscow’s ongoing special operation in Ukraine, Putin underscored that Russia is doing the right thing there.
“I think we are acting in the right direction: we are protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we just have no choice but to protect our citizens,” he said.
This was preceded by Putin emphasizing earlier this month that “the only real guarantor of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in its current borders could be Russia.”
The military operation Russia launched in Ukraine in February took place only because Moscow was left with no other option to resolve the crisis in Donbass, he added, noting how the ensuing situation was used to fan anti-Russian sentiment throughout the world.
Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, in order to defend the people of the Donbass republics, who had been suffering from Ukrainian attacks. Shortly afterwards, the Western countries started rolling out sanction packages against Russia and providing Kiev with military and financial aid. Moscow criticized the flow of weapons into Ukraine from Western nations, warning that it only aggravates the conflict.
Putin: Russia Doing Everything to End Ukraine Crisis, But Kiev Seeks to Reach Goals by Means of War
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan's city of Samarkand.
President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Russia is doing everything to end the Ukraine crisis as soon as possible, as the Russian and Indian leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan's city of Samarkand.
"I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine…the concerns that you have repeatedly expressed... We will do everything to ensure that this all stops as quickly as possible… However, Kiev refuses negotiations,” Putin told Modi, adding that the Ukrainian government is intent on reaching its goals by means of war.
"Nevertheless, we will always keep you informed of what is happening there,” Vladimir Putin added.
Ahead of the meeting with Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi described Russia as a critical energy partner and vowed to explore the "huge potential in this area that remains untapped."
Earlier this week, Russia's ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, said the two countries were "very motivated" to ensure that the defense cooperation between the two strategic partners is "uninterrupted" by the Ukraine crisis. He pointed to the fact that India has maintained its stance of neutrality on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and has continued active trade and military cooperation with Russia, despite Western criticism.
Satlantas Polres Bogor berlakukan Car Free Night jalur Puncak.
Satlantas Polres Bogor menutup Jalur Puncak dari arah Tol Jagorawi, Sabtu, 31/12/2022, pukul 18.00 WIB. Pengendara yang hendak menuju Puncak dari Jakarta via Tol Jagorawi diarahkan melewati Ciawi.
Meski begitu, Jalur Puncak baru akan benar-benar ditutup pada pukul 22.00 WIB di mana tidak boleh ada pengendara menuju ke arah Puncak untuk mencegah penumpukan kendaraan.
“Malam ini Jalur Puncak diberlakukan Car Free Night. Dari jam 6 sore ini, kendaraan dari arah Tol Jagorawi yang mau melintasi Puncak diarahkan lewat Ciawi. Masih boleh naik, sampai jam 10 malam,” kata Direktur Regident Korlantas Polri, Brigjen Pol Yusri Yunus.
Menurutnya, masyarakat yang hendak menuju kawasan Puncak agar mengatur waktu perjalanannya, agar tidak perlu mencari jalan lain, saat penutupan total diterapkan mulai pukul 22.00 WIB.
Sementara Kasat Lantas Polres Bogor, AKP Dicky Pranata menjelaskan, penutupan jalan hanya berlaku untuk kendaraan menuju kawasan Puncak. Sementara kendaraan menuju arah Jakarta, tetap diperbolehkan melintas.
“Sepeda motor pun tetap diperbolehkan melintas. Jalur-jalur alternatif tetap dapat dipergunakan. Namun, mulai pukul 22.00 WIB Jalur Puncak steril dari kendaraan yang menuju ke atas,” tegas Dicky.
Bagi kendaraan yang hendak menuju Cianjur atau Bandung, akan diarahkan melalui jalur alternatif Jonggol atau Sukabumi.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has passed away at the age of 95, Director of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni said on Saturday.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the Bavarian-born theologian whose conservative Roman Catholicism earned him the nickname “God’s Rottweiler” and who shocked his flock by suddenly resigning the papacy after just eight years, died Saturday, the Vatican said.
His death was announced in Rome on Dec. 31. His funeral Mass will be held on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said.
The Vatican press office director, Matteo Bruni, said Dec. 31: “With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.”
Benedict XVI’s body will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica beginning on Jan. 2, 2023.
Bruni told journalists in a news briefing Dec. 31 that Benedict received the sacrament of anointing of the sick on Dec. 28.
The solemn funeral Mass will be on Jan. 5, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, with Pope Francis presiding.
“In accordance with the wish of the pope emeritus, the funeral will be carried out under the sign of simplicity,” Bruni said.
You can watch EWTN’s live coverage of Benedict’s death from Rome here.
Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, he was elected to the papacy in April 2005, taking the name Benedict XVI, after decades of service to the Catholic Church as a theologian, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, cardinal, and one of the closest collaborators of St. John Paul II, whom he succeeded as pope.
On Feb. 11, 2013, the 85-year-old Benedict shocked the world with a Latin-language announcement of his retirement, becoming the first pope in 600 years to do so. He cited his advanced age and his lack of strength as unsuitable to the exercise of his office.
Widely recognized as one of the Catholic Church's top theologians, Benedict’s pontificate was marked by a profound understanding of the challenges to the Church in the face of growing ideological aggression, not least from an increasingly secular Western mindset, both within and outside the Church. He famously warned about the “dictatorship of relativism” in a homily just before the conclave in 2005 that elected him pope.
Born in a small village in Bavaria called Marktl am Inn on April 16, 1927, the future pope grew up in a region of Germany long known as a stronghold of Marian devotion and piety. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph and Maria Ratzinger.
His youth in the nearby Bavarian town of Traunstein was overshadowed by the rise of the Nazi party, a regime he called “sinister” and that “banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good.”
After a brief forced conscription of two months into the German army at the end of the Second World War, Ratzinger and his older brother, Georg, resumed their studies for the priesthood, first in Freising and then in Munich.
Ordained a priest with his brother on June 29, 1951, Ratzinger finished his doctoral studies in theology and became a university teacher and vice president at the prestigious University of Regensburg in Bavaria. His reputation as an intellectual prompted an invitation to serve as an expert, or peritus, at the Second Vatican Council from Cardinal Joseph Frings, the archbishop of Cologne. He rapidly distinguished himself as an eminent theologian.
In 1977, Pope Paul VI named him archbishop of Munich and Freising and, later that same year, gave him the cardinal’s red hat.
Just four years later, in 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Ratzinger as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department of the Vatican dedicated to promoting and defending the teachings of the Catholic faith. He held the post until the death of John Paul II in 2005.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Benedict a “giant of faith and reason” that history will never forget. Olaf Scholz, chancellor of his native Germany, said Benedict was a “formative figure of the Catholic Church.”
Benedict took the title pope emeritus and continued to wear the papal white. But he returned the Ring of the Fisherman, which traditionally is ceremonially destroyed with a blow from a hammer after a pope dies. And he asked that he be addressed as Father Benedict.
The former pope also maintained a cordial relationship with Francis. Both men were beaming when they embraced Dec. 8, 2015, before opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the start of the Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee. In June 2016, Francis kissed Benedict on both cheeks to help celebrate the 65th anniversary of the former pope’s ordination.
Over a series of conversations, Benedict, played by Anthony Hopkins, confesses that he can no longer hear God’s words and his belief that perhaps Bergoglio should succeed him as the only man who might be able to shatter the Vatican bureaucracy and reform the institution.
Change is needed, Benedict says, but “change is compromising,” and he is incapable of compromising. “For my entire life, I have been alone, but never lonely, until now,” he says.
In his New Year message to Russian servicemen on Saturday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in particular, signaled Moscow's readiness to fight for the right to speak Russian.
In his New Year message to the Russian servicemen, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu thanked them for their courage and heroism in the performance of military duty during Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, and wished them clear skies.
Shoigu also pointed to "serious trials that have changed the usual course of time" in 2022.
"The outgoing year will forever go down in the military chronicles of the Fatherland, filled with your immortal deeds, selfless courage and heroism in the fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism. I thank you all for your service and loyalty to the oath!" the Russian defense minister stressed.
"The outgoing year will forever go down in the military chronicles of the Fatherland, filled with your immortal deeds, selfless courage and heroism in the fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism. I thank you all for your service and loyalty to the oath!" the Russian defense minister stressed.
He recalled that external forces are now trying to cross out the glorious history and great achievements of Russia as they demolish monuments to the winners over fascism and place war criminals on pedestals. According to Shoigu, everything that is related to Russia is canceled and defiled.
Under such circumstances, Shoigu stressed, the New Year remains not only a good tradition, but also acquires a deep meaning, becoming a symbol of hope for a peaceful future.
He also praised Russian soldiers for “heroically fulfilling combat missions to protect the national interests and security of Russia,” adding that they are celebrating the coming New Year away from their relatives as they resolve “the most difficult tasks in the course of the special military operation.”
"In the coming year, I want to wish everyone good health, fortitude, reliable and devoted comrades and, of course, clear skies! Our victory, like the New Year, is inevitable!" Shoigu emphasized.
Earlier this month, he said that the main task for 2023 is the continuation of the special operation in Ukraine until the full implementation of all its tasks.
The beginning of the operation was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, after the Donbass republics appealed for help in defending themselves against Kiev's attacks.
How the USSR Changed the Face of the World
On December 30, 2022, Russians and others across the globe commemorated the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). How did the 70 years of the USSR change the world?
"It was the world’s first socialist country, a system based on public ownership, state planning, social welfare and egalitarianism," Geoffrey Roberts, professor of history at University College Cork, Ireland, and a leading scholar on Soviet diplomatic and military history, said.
"It showed that such a system was not utopian but a practical possibility; indeed, at times the Soviet system threatened to economically outperform even the most advanced capitalist countries."
"The Bolsheviks succeeded in building a world industrial power, one that defeated Nazi Germany and then fought the United States to a standstill during the Cold War: a system that created the military, economic, scientific, technical and cultural power that underpins the strength of contemporary Russia," the professor continued.
The USSR was formed following the end of the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) and accompanying foreign intervention. On December 30, 1922, the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republics united into one state with a single political body in the capital of Moscow. Other Soviet republics which used to be parts of the Russian Empire joined the USSR in the coming years. The USSR established control over the territory the Russian Empire had amassed by 1917 (excluding Finland, part of the Polish kingdom and some other territories).
The young Soviet state was founded in a highly contested and hostile environment. Western nations refused to recognize the USSR for years. As a Canadian historian told Sputnik in 2015, the European and US elites sought to overthrow the Soviet government "from day one," as the latter promoted an alternative to capitalism and western hegemony. Western countries subsidized and armed the anti-Soviet White movement; dispatched sizable military forces to thwart the Soviets during the Civil War; and waged a broad economic war against Moscow.
Nonetheless, the USSR continued to develop and increase its industrial production by almost 13 times during the first 30 years of the country's existence. By the time of the Second World War, 9,000 large industrial enterprises had been built in the USSR. New industries were created from scratch including machine tool building, tractor building, chemical industry, and aircraft building.
The Soviet collectivization ensured modernization and mechanization of agricultural labor, improved food supplies across the country and solved the famine problem, which haunted Russia since the end of the 19th century. Strategic food reserves were also created in the country.
In addition, the USSR applied vast social reforms by promoting gender equality; ensuring eight-hour working days and annual paid leave; institutionalizing the right to free general and vocational education, the right to work and the right to free medical care for all citizens, to name but a few. Some of these reforms were implemented for the first time in history.
When it comes to the USSR's foreign policy, its contribution to global decolonization could hardly be overestimated: the peoples of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America cooperated with the USSR and received humanitarian and military aid from Moscow.
Besides that, it was the USSR that helped
Turkey leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to counter the advance of the Greek, British, French, and Italian interventionists in 1920-1922. Therefore, the 11-meter-high Republic Monument (Cumhuriyet Aniti) at Taksim Square, Istanbul, portrays Semyon Aralov, ambassador of the Russian SFSR in Ankara during the Turkish War of Independence, behind Ataturk. Also on display are the two high-ranking Soviet officers Marshal Kliment Voroshilov and General Mikhail Frunze. The monument was erected to honor the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
It was likewise the USSR that helped China end the infamous "century of humiliation" – a term used in the country to describe the period of intervention and subjugation of the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China by western powers and Japan from 1839 to 1949. The Soviet Union also backed the Chinese Communist Party's struggle and the foundation of the People's Republic of China.
It was the USSR that defeated Nazism in 1945, together with its allies, and lost around 27 million people in the Second World War to liberate the continent from this monstrous ideology and its military machine.
Despite some western experts' claims that the USSR always sought to foment global revolution, Vladimir Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, abandoned the idea of the "world revolution" in the 1920s, promoting instead the concept of "socialism in a single country" within the boundaries of the USSR. His vision became the official doctrine after the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) in 1925.
According to Roberts, the USSR's indisputable achievements included "multinationalism, internationalism, and anti-imperialism; its idealism and egalitarian aspirations; above all, its valorization of peaceful coexistence between different peoples, systems and values."
USSR's Disintegration
However, following 70 years of its rise and development, the USSR collapsed. What was behind this and was it inevitable?
The Soviet people had grown disenchanted with the Communist idea because of the party's "nomenclature" corruption, rigid command economy, and lack of freedoms, according to Edward Lozansky, president of the American University in Moscow.
"The Soviet Union managed to survive for 69 years, despite huge human and material losses and devastation caused by WW2," Lozansky said. "Actually, it could continue to exist for some time but several factors like an arms race with the West, economic inefficiency and the Gorbachev factor who naively tried to combine communism with freedom, ended this experiment."
"The West, and first of all the United States, had a unique chance to turn free-from-communist Russia into its most important ally. [Mikhail] Gorbachev, and all Russian leaders who followed him, including [Vladimir] Putin, plus the overwhelming majority of Russian people, were ready for integration with the West, but Washington was not interested. Instead, it had chosen the role of the world's hegemonic leader - thus squandering the historical opportunity for US-Russia, and more broadly, East-West win-win cooperation, and here we are - on the edge of the abyss," the academic continued.
The collapse of the USSR was not inevitable, let alone its swift defragmentation, believes Roberts. "Not long before the USSR collapsed, Gorbachev staged a referendum on the continuation of a multinational Soviet state – a goal that was endorsed by the great majority of voters," he emphasized.
However, the country was largely exhausted by the arms race, initiated by the US-led NATO bloc. The resulting imbalances and wastefulness of the Soviet economy demanded new approaches and flexibility.
At that time, prominent US economist and Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics Wassily Leontief (1906-1999) compared the USSR's economy to a yacht that was unable to catch the wind. The Soviet economy was doomed to further recession, restrained by excessive government interference and regulation, he suggested in his essays.
The US economy, however, was not in its best shape either. In January 1989, the famous Trilateral Commission's leaders undertook a mission to Moscow to meet Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The group and Gorbachev discussed the issue of coexistence as well as a roadmap of the USSR's integration into the world economy.
"We are all at a crucial stage — both capitalism and socialism," Gorbachev noted at that time. "The two systems should show they can adapt to new conditions," he added. According to western media, Gorbachev’s eschewal of the use of force helped end the decades-long Cold War.
Eventually, the two nuclear powers voluntarily agreed to stop the arms race and end the standoff. It was the time when major western leaders promised Gorbachev and other Soviet officials that NATO would not further expand eastward. The Washington-based non-profit, the National Security Archive, published in December 2017 declassified bombshell documents that indicated that US Secretary of State James Baker and leaders of the UK, France, and Germany indeed provided that pledge.
Nonetheless, the subsequent geopolitical changes and defragmentation of the USSR, caused by internal separatism and economic crisis, prompted the West to reconsider its approach. US President George H.W. Bush claimed in January 1992 that "by the grace of God, America won the Cold War," while President Bill Clinton "okayed" the expansion of NATO in 1997 despite 50 prominent foreign policy experts warning the US president in June 1997 that the expansion of NATO would eventually "unsettle European stability".
Instead of integrating Russia into the world's economy on an equal basis, the West has seen it as just "raw-material appendage" and an open market for the past 30 years. Hence, Russia's attempt to secure its borders and national interests in February 2022 prompted a fierce backlash from the West in the form of sweeping sanctions and a NATO proxy war in Ukraine.
Nonetheless, Russia, as it did 100 years ago, is set to withstand the pressure. The Soviet experiment and its best practices proved that Russia could not only be self-sustainable but is also able to maintain vast international alliances across the world.
"Another measure of the deep roots of Soviet patriotism is its continuation in contemporary Russia," said Roberts. "As a multinational state, the Russian Federation is the direct successor of the USSR – a Russia that is headed by a president – Vladimir Putin – who continues to promote citizenship and patriotism as the foundation of the system, albeit one that is also conservative and capitalist."
