While the World Parties, Moscow is Sending Some Clear Messages, Bret Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 4 – The Christmas holidays are a time when many Western countries focus on celebrations rather than on future policies, Cyrille Bret of the Paris Institute of Political Research says. But while Russians are nominally also on the long winter vacation, the Kremlin is sending some clear warnings to the world about its intentions in the coming year.

            Bret, a former professor of political science at Moscow State University, makes this point in an article in the French edition of Slate (slate.fr/story/185861/avertissements-russie-communaute-internationale-voeux-2020). It has now been translated into Russian and is being closely attended to in Moscow (inopressa.ru/article/03Jan2020/slatefr/avertissements.html).

            In the edited translation now circulating in Russia, Bret makes the following points:

·         Russia will talk about the Donbass but it will not make any concessions on Crimea, regardless of the response of the West.

·         Moscow plans to increase its strategic partnership with China and Iran in the coming year.

·         Russia will continue to develop its new “hypersonic” weapons systems and will maintain itself as “a leader in the area of strategic arms” both for defense and for sale abroad.

·         Moscow will continue to play an independent role in Syria and the Middle East.

·         And Russia will exploit what is likely to be the increasingly domestic focus in France, the US, and the EU over the next 12 months to advance its positions not only in the Middle East and Asia but in Eastern Europe as well.