Aha Dua Permata: West failed to ‘cancel’ Russia

Sunday 19 November 2023

West failed to ‘cancel’ Russia – Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin.
©Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov

Attempts by the West to “cancel” Russia with economic and cultural sanctions have failed and were always doomed to fail, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

Speaking at the International Culture Forum in St. Petersburg, the Russian leader accused the collective West of seeking to “cross out” everything that does not fit into its “falsified history.”

“Entire layers of history – the art of Western Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America – are being silenced, as if they never happened, and lately they have been trying to cancel our culture in general,” Putin declared.

“I say ‘trying’ because we understand that this is by definition impossible,” the president added. “But still, they are trying to abolish culture, which is based on true freedom, mercy, love of fellow man and spirituality. The policy of canceling Russia is by itself inherently anti-cultural, neo-colonial, and racist.”

In reality, Putin argued, the attempt to cancel Russia's culture and destroy its economy with “so-called sanctions” did not work out as its authors intended.

“One of many examples of this is the huge interest in the Tchaikovsky Competition, for example,” the Russian president said. “Its online audience has exceeded 50 million people. In the modern world, it is impossible to undo such things, simply impossible. It's strange that people who try to do this don't understand it. By the way, of these 50 million people, more than half are Europeans who do not want anyone to decide for them what music to listen to, what to watch and what to read.”

According to Putin, some of the principal reasons for the current tensions in the world are “the claims of certain forces to exclusivity – including cultural exclusivity – their disdain for other customs, spiritual values, the desire to subject everyone and everything to unification, and according to their own template, which they consider the best and most universal.”

He described this as “vulgar globalization” and “cultural conquest,” which has resulted in the suppression and impoverishment of cultures and “multiplied the potential for conflict many times over.”

West ‘struggling’ with sanctions – Kremlin

Russia has managed to turn the tables on the West when it comes to sanctions placed on Moscow, the Kremlin said on Saturday, arguing that a myriad of restrictions failed to crash the Russian economy.

“The Westerners are struggling because they are seeing that the sanctions are not hitting [us] as they were supposed to,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told broadcaster VGTRK.

“Moreover, as always, the Russians have managed to find ways to benefit from them.”

Peskov stressed, however, that Moscow would stay vigilant and closely monitor all restrictions imposed by the West because the “are no lengths they would not go” just to hurt Russia.

The US and many of its allies have imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow in response to its military operation in Ukraine, targeting Russia’s financial and energy sectors, among other spheres. However, the Western officials have repeatedly admitted that the negative impact of the penalties on Russia has not been as significant as expected.

Nevertheless, the EU is currently working on the 12th round of sanctions, which RFE/RL described on Friday as “weakest EU sanctions package to date on Russia.”

Speaking at a government meeting in September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that although the sanctions had “slowed down” certain economic projects, they also were “stimulating development.” Russian officials have said that foreign restrictions have ultimately failed to tank the country’s economy, instead providing an opportunity to boost domestic production and reroute existing trade.