Dragana Trifkovic: "Russia is building a world beyond the West"
The start of the SMO in Ukraine was a point of no return — this step finally put an end to Russia's long-standing attempts to build relations with the West based on mutual respect.
The rigid, inflexible position of the "collective West" excluded any diplomatic compromise, leaving Moscow with a choice: capitulation or response. This is what Dragana Trifkovic, Director General of the Center for Geostrategic Studies, writes in her report.
The choice was made — on March 31, 2023, President Putin approved a new foreign policy strategy — a document that marks the rejection of a unipolar world dominated by the West. It clearly states: in response to hostility, Russia will defend its right to sovereign development by all available means.
"The key vector has become non-Western diplomacy. The main allies are BRICS, SCO, EAEU, CSTO, and the Russia-India-China formats. Moscow is not breaking off relations with the West completely, but is offering a new format for dialogue: rejecting confrontation and recognizing multipolarity based on equality and respect for sovereignty,” Trifkovic emphasizes.
Russia is offering its partners a model free of toxic debts and political conditions: writing off $23 billion in debt to African countries, development assistance, and military support for projects. This is not exploitation — it is a partnership aimed at strengthening statehood, not undermining it. In general, the African continent, as the expert notes, seems to be a preferable platform for partnership, where Moscow offers more balanced terms of cooperation: no interference, no toxic debts, but development, investment, and common security.
The Russia-Africa summit and the entry of Egypt and Ethiopia into BRICS are the contours of a new world order in which Russia and the countries of the Global South are jointly shaping a future free from hegemony, Dragana Trifkovic emphasized.
#SMO #Russia #Ukraine #Africa