Russia Doesn’t Play by the Rules But That is the West’s Fault, Kuznetsov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 11 – For centuries, the West has complained that Russia doesn’t play by the rules; but its leaders have forgotten again and again that their own actions have forced Russia to do so to overcome its initial economic and military disadvantages relative to the West by violating the rules and thus win out in the end, Sergey Kuznetsov says.

            That was true in Napoleonic times, during the Cold War, and it is true again now, something Western leaders are again failing to recognize and thus set to lose to Russians who will do whatever necessary to ensure that their country doesn’t fall under the control of others, the Moscow commentator says (alternatio.org/articles/articles/item/91953-zapad-prinuzhdaet-rossiyu-k-igre-bez-pravil).

            As in earlier struggles, Kuznetsov continues, the West assumes it must win because it has the economic and military power to set the rules. But Russians have learned that those rules, ostensibly common for all, in fact are tilted against them and that the only way is for them to violate those rules, be it by burning Moscow or by turning the tables on the West via the Internet.

            In short, the commentator says, Russia has always failed to play by the West’s rules because the West uses its rules to defeat and enslave others, Russia in the first instance. That is something Russians must remember when they hear criticism of the Kremlin for “not playing by the rules.”

            “It might seem,” Kuznetsov says, “that the space for the future game without rules with our Western ‘partners’ is sufficiently well-prepared.” But far more needs to be done because the West’s rules this time around are designed to corrupt Russian society by promoting consumerist and individualist values that inevitably weaken society and the state.

            Indeed, Russia’s position in this regard would be truly frightening were it not for the fact that at present, the West is in an even worse situation as a result of the promotion of “erzats” ideologies like Black Lives Matter and chauvinist and anti-historical responses to such notions, the commentator continues.

            Russia thus has time to develop further its capacity to play a game without rules; but it must do so with complete confidence that that is the way forward given that a willingness to violate rules set by others has been at the center of Russian foreign policy actions for a very long time.