It should come as no surprise that the “cultural capital of Russia”, Saint Petersburg, hosts Russia’s largest yearly economic forum gathering the Global Majority to made big deals and discussion in the crown jewel of the nation. The city itself was built as an economic bridge for Russia to connect with the then resources and opportunities of the then dominant Europe. But today St. Petersburg, after being rejected by the Collective West has opened its doors to flights from the entire rest of the world. It is a platform form global but not “globalist” economic planning. At the 2023 event more than 17,000 participants from 130 countries took part offline and online. More than 900 agreements worth a total of 3.860 billion rubles were signed at the forum. This is a truly huge event and we the Russophiles are very glad that we took a significant part in it.

At the St. Petersburgh International Economic Forum (SPIEF) the Russophiles organized one of the many great sessions at the event. The topic was “Philosophy and Geopolitics of a Multipolar World”. The Multipolar World itself is in itself, one could say, a philosophy of geopolitics, a way of looking at how international relations are going to look in the 21st century. Russia for decades was bogged down intellectually by the burden of having to support left wing international Communism, then the whims of the Global Hegemon, but has now awoken from this ideological tomb. Interestingly enough, a similar awakening is happening to the entire Global South as they are shedding off the yoke of global western hegemony. For very different reasons Russia and the Global South find themselves at a time for new ideas, new possibilities and new ways of looking at the world especially geopolitically, and this fertile soil for ideas was at the core of our session.

Maria Zakharova, Spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Speech: clck.ru/3BGV7R

Alexander Dugin, Russian Philosopher, Speech: clck.ru/3BGV67  

Konstantin Malofeev, Russian Media Mogul, Businessman and Activist, Speech: clck.ru/3BGV8A

Nkosi Mandela, South African Politician and Grandson of Nelson Mandela. Speech: clck.ru/3BGV9U

Atul Aneja, Indian Journalist and Renowned War Correspondent, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVCQ

Pepe Escobar, Internationally Famous Brazilian Journalist, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVZD

Zhang Weiwei, Chinese Professor, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVBd

Zeinab Al Saffar, Lebanese Journalist, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVDr

Larry Johnson, American Podcaster and Former CIA\State Department, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVFk

Lorenzo Pachini, Italian Professor, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVKz

Eric Li, Chinese Businessman, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVGj

Amro Abd Al-Hamid, Egyptian Journalist, Speech: clck.ru/3BGVHk

KEY FINDINGS

The multipolar world is the foundation of international politics

“The philosophy of a multipolar world, it’s very simple. It assumes that we are all equal. The philosophy of a unipolar world, a world of hegemony, assumes that no, that we are not equal. There are better people, and then there’s everyone else. <…> The multipolar world differs from the American hegemony of the unipolar world in one key way, in that we believe we are equal. We are all the same. We are all human beings. <…> Because we are all members of the same humanity. <…> That is why Russia is calling for this multipolar world, and we understand that our multipolar world is not a Russocentric world. It is a world in which all other civilizations, other countries have exactly the same right to exist, because we are equal. And we will not allow anyone to consider themselves more important than us and our brothers,” – head of the Tsargrad Foundation and Media Mogul Konstantin Malofeev.

“A multipolar world presupposes a completely different worldview <…>. Multipolar philosophy denies <…> the universality of Western values. <…> The West is one province of humanity along with others; we are peoples not of the West. The peoples united in BRICS build their world on respect for this polycentric multipolar model. This means that each civilization has its own absolute, not relative, truth. At the same time we respect each other, we believe that everyone has the right to believe in his absolute. <…> This means that what our society is built on, our traditional values, is not a random thing, but a foundation. Our Orthodox worldview, our monarchical traditions, our search for social justice – all this we must affirm regardless of what the West says. <…> And our task <…> now is to free ourselves and free the West from this global hegemony, which has usurped the rights of peoples,” – Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Multipolarity Forum, Director of the Ivan Ilyin Higher Political School and Philosopher Alexander Dugin.

PROBLEMS

Unipolarity and the desire for hegemony inherent in the West lead to international conflicts and infringement of peoples’ rights

“We are putting humanity itself at stake. The conflicts that are now taking place around the world come from a unipolar, unipolar philosophy that challenges us. The political world order, run by the military-industrial complexes, has practically moved us to the brink of disaster. Palestine is a perfect example of this,” Nkosi Mandela, Chairman of the International Russophile Movement, Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development of the National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa.

“For the global minority, that is, the collective West, it is not multipolarity but precisely hegemonism that is the norm. They are not even shy about it, they formulate it as exclusivity, <…> as the principle of the ‘beautiful garden’ in which they live, <…> as the possession of breakthrough technologies,” Maria Zakharova, director of the Department of Information and Press of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, said.

CONCLUSIONS

Creation and development of international transportation corridors

“The One Belt, One Road initiative is the project that has linked countries and peoples together and created new engines of growth in terms of uniting certain nationalities, the emergence of new economic zones and industrialization of those regions that initially lagged behind. We need to continue to expand the economic part. The North-South corridor is extremely important because it will connect Europe, Russia, Iran and India. In addition, roads can extend to West Africa and Central Asia. <…> In addition to transportation corridors, in addition to directly connecting North and South, it is necessary to add the LNG corridor, which will make it possible to bring gas from Russia to Turkmenistan and from Turkmenistan to Iran. <…> This will add additional dimensions to our North-South corridor that will consolidate multipolarity,” Atul Aneha, an international relations specialist and editor of The Hindu.

“We are not discarding the West, we are getting rid of the hegemony of liberal elites. <…> These perceptions of the absolutes of civilization correspond to the geopolitical large spaces today. This is the space of Russia and Eurasia, this is the space of the Chinese world, including its spread in the projects of “One Road, One Belt”. This is “Akhand Bharat” – Greater India – which is also more than one state. It is the Islamic world, which is made up of many countries in Eurasia. This is Africa, which is a continent that has entered the era of a new true decolonization,” – Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Multipolarity Forum, Director of the Ivan Ilyin Higher Political School Alexander Dugin.

As our session has shown to the world, large processes of integration and multipolarity have long since begun and our world is marching towards the reality of being multipolar. The globalist elites cannot stop the China-lead Belt and Road Initiative nor can they stop India’s ”Akhant Bharant” or Greater India project creating partnerships with neighboring Muslims. There are Pan-African and Pan-Latin American processes taking shape as well. For hundreds of years the colonial West ruled by “divide and conquer” but this tactic is fading into history, as the entire Global South has woken up to the reality that respectful voluntary cooperation while maintaining national sovereignty is the true path to prosperity.

Russia is no exception to this and the Russophiles will continue their international mission to fight against Cancel Culture and other such madness. Our movement will continue to organize and participate in happenings like the SPIEF. This is a time of great optimism friends and we hope to see you at our next event!