Can Russia ever be a Superpower again?

Russia under the reign of President Vladimir Putin claims that Moscow is seeking to establish a multipolar system, which Russia plays a vital role in it. But can Russia become a superpower again without cultural hegemony?

Voice Over: Syedda Shahid

#SyrianaAnalysis #Russia #Putin

[PeterSodhi]

Russia is not interested in being another Superpower - their investments are purely defensive. They already have a huge percentage of the world's landmass and spans the Eurasian continent. They are internally focused on increasing the wealth of their own people and increasing population. With China they espouse a positive global cultural model - trade not war. That appeals as it leads to more even distribution of wealth. America has stated that it wants to keep its unfair share of wealth and that model is no longer working. A gun, siege warfare and printing money only goes so far.

[FelixL]

I remember reading The Grand Chessboard when I just started to get into geopolitics. There was a lot of stuff I didn't really understand back then, but as time went by, it helped me so much to understand how that game is playing. You made me want to read it again!

[peterleuenberger]

The strength of the US is mainly the English language in form of Globish imitated worldwide but very superficially. Russia cannot compete in this level. But Russia should learn from the Soviet Union building a strong basis of really scientific education that it can offer to its own citizens and the youth worldwide. A huge number of students from the third world studied in the USSR and other socialist countries as German Democratic Republic. This was a great success. Russia today stands on the shoulders of the Soviet Union. It has not to become a pseudo superpower but to play out its strength in building a performant and therefore attractive education system.

[whodidthat]

Awesome channel. Keep up the wonderful impartial commentary. Work such as yours is sorely needed.

[robertbrowne]

Russia is a treasure trove of materials and IS a super power.

[alexsilent]

Russia was always a superpower and always will be.😎

[gustavobagu]

Superb!!!... there is another passage in Brzezinski´s book: "In an interconnected world, the notion of underdevelopment, becomes intolerable"...

[JohnDoeX]

Russia needs to work on its soft power, its severely lacking. RT is great start but it needs more

[qwertyuiopzxcvbnm]

I agree that Russia should keep a lot of attention on increasing soft power but economic power can vastly improve soft power and therefore Russia should also improve its economy through technology. Difficult, but technology has the potential...

[canthama]

I do not see Russia aiming to be a superpower...Russia is supposedly "happy" enough to be extremely strong militarily, and be heard...I can see Russia expanding its tentacles in many regions though...it will be very influent in the ex USSR States and will unleash its impressive and 1st class diplomacy worldwide...watch carefully how Russia deals with Latin America...this is an example of the future...softpower and trade.

[dante]

It already is but in a multi polar world in which China, India and Iran will also be superpowers.

[branilavvasic]

Thank you for covering this very important but very complex topic. I have to say that I disagree with the main premise of the idea that cultural influence is necessary to become a superpower.

One important question to ask is this. What causes these color revolutions to succeed? I think there are three important factors.
-First of there is an economic factor. The whole premise that color revolution is based on is economic one. When Youth looks at the West and how well people live in EU and USA some of them start thinking that if they just overthrow their government they can start living like them as well.
-Also there is informational factor too. If youth is constantly bombarded with this idea that they can just overthrow their government and start living better then they will be more likely to believe in it. (Brzezinski calls this cultural influence but I disagree and I will explain it why I disagree in the second part of my comment)
-Finlay there is military factor too. If Russia takes passive stance and doesn't do anything like in Ukraine or in Georgia then color revolution succeeds. If they act quickly then it fails.
It is important to note that all three factors lean on each other. You asked the right question when you asked about pro Russian governments that allow NGOs that are funded by Soros to operate in countries like Ukraine or Kazakhstan. The reason is that they are not realy pro Russian. Or more precisely Russia doesn't have as much control over them as people think. For example Nazarbaev's government was trying to assimilate Russians in Kazahstan and also it allowed these NGOs to operate freely. Many countries in the Russian sphere of influence have pro western elites that keep their money in western banks (thus the connection between the economic and informational factor).
There is also connection between economic and military factor. Many times elites of some countries have their money in the west and they try to sabotage military response to these color revolutions. This happened many times most recently in Kazahstan where many in Kazah military surrendered without a fight. One can assume that this is due to the fact that someone told them to do so and that this someone got bribed with american dollars.

Now what can Russia do to prevent these color revolutions?
Well one way is with military power witch they did in Kazahstan but that alone is not enough. There needs to be a way to counter other two pillars on witch these color revolutions stand on.
Due to the fact that Russian economy is not that strong in short therm they will have to rely on China to help out pro Russian governments to develop economically and solve economic aspects of color revolutions. Yes in the long run they could potentially use the global warming to develop north and even build northern sea route that will bring lots of money to Russia but in short therm cooperation with China is imperative. China also has reasons to cooperate as it will not want pro western vassal states to be formed that will aid west in its trade war against China.
Finally there is a third pillar of these color revolutions and that is the informational pillar. Now I would say that Russia stands better then China here but not as good as the west so that pillar needs improving.

Finally there is another strategy that Russa can use and it has been using recently. They can allow some of these color revolutions to succeed in some places but then cut them of from all Gass supplies and China can cut them of from its market. Truth be told this is probably worst way to deal with these color revolutions when you look at it from the perspective of the people leaving in these countries but it is the best way for China and Russia to deal with them given their lack of informational influence.
The main reason for this is because USA will have to fund these countries where color revolution took place and that will take a lot of money. The only reason why Germany and Japan are now american allays is because USA helped them develop their economy. Question is can USA do it again and do it better then China? If the answer is no then same conditions that let to pro western color revolutions (mainly poverty due to sanctions and exclusion from the western markets) can be recreated with the exclusion from Chinese markets. Key factor here will be depolarization witch if successful will lead to less countries using dollar and by extension USA will have to be more careful in how it spends its money. That could lead to USA having less money to spend on making these color revolutions or having less money to spend on improving these countries where color revolution is made.
Well we can definitely see that they already have less money to improve these countries after color revolutions. While Japan and Germany developed quickly after ww2 many of today's american projects are complete disasters. Just take a look at economic tigers such as Ukraine, Georgia, Kosovo... They are a far cry from post ww2 economic success stories such as South Korea, Japan or Germany. None of these countries where color revolution succeed have anything going for them and they are less likely support the west as the time goes on. As the time passses by and these countries don't improve people will be less and less likely to attempt any color revolutions.

So to conclude I would say that economic factor is the key here and while all other factors matter as well if China and Russia can win an economic battle with USA then they have a good chance of preventing these color revolutions and changing the mind of worlds youth.

[brunodrweski]

China has ideology (and culture), a complete economy, a growing scientific power and military power. It is then a « complete society » and then a growing complete superpower. Russia has not all this and that’s why Russia can only be the shield and the sword of China ...what is still not so bad if we compare with its situation in 1991. But China will be the future axis of the emerging world at the moment US cultural, political, economical and even military power is decaying.

[rockyfjord]

Dear Kevork: May I recommend Jacques Barzun's 'From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western
Cultural History. Barzun believed the US, as capitol of Western Civ was playing out and the twelve
or so themes of Western Civ had nothing left to give. He writes a fair amount about US style and
manners and so on. If you read this well written tome, you can then juxtapose your hypothesis or theory

with his perspective. A dialectic if you will. I would also recommend the Spanish philosopher Ortega
y Gasset, who eviscerated Arnold Toynbee for Toynbee's invention of 'racism' and 'anti-racism' as they
are known today, in 'An Interpretation of Universal History.' Also see 'Man and Crisis' for additional
themes relevant to today. Russia does have a cultural history far richer than US culture of Rap, feces
art, celebrity worship, tattoos, in-your-face hair styles, Hollywood, video games and so on. Russia

has spiritual depth that US lacks: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Puskin, 1000 years of history before the US
became a nation. Plurality under one flag works in Russia. It does not work in the US with fault lines
of ethnic divisions seething beneath the surface of a broken system. Russian movies are superior
to Hollywood commercial crap that are made solely for money; it is not art nor cinema. And so on.

[arimagoo]

The US and the West are way ahead in the cultural race or hegemony you may agree, so Russia probably doesn’t stand a chance. However a topic of concern very dear to large numbers across the globe and especially the youth, in addition to climate change/ecology, is: poverty, hunger, cessation of wars/peace. China is already making great strides especially in eliminating poverty within, making peaceful trade alliances and in green technology. Russia or any nation will gain strongly by investing in such, the world is connected more than ever and watching.

[JinQb]

I find that both Russia and China struggle to find this cultural model/pillar and will face significant setbacks if they don’t address it soon.

[larrysherk]

Russia is completely unconcerned about becoming a superpower, because they are not interested in empire, but only in self-defense and self-development.

[СтАрАеМсЯ-бы]

Привет из России, из Санкт-Петербурга :)

[ashleymcintosh]

The NED should not be aloud to operate in foreign countries as with its NGO, s unless you want your government to fall..Russia is not interested in being a hegemony power..but to live in peace with all countries.

[joeren]

Russia is a military superpower; by most accounts, the best military in the world, in terms of advanced and unparalleled weaponry. That’s good enough.