Medvedev called Russia’s goal an opportunity to build an open Eurasia
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev received Telegram channel with an explanation why “denatization and demilitarization” of Ukraine is needed. The answer, according to the former president of Russia, lies in counteracting “fakes” “to dehumanize Russia and denigrate it to the maximum.” The goals of “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine”, he noted, “are not fulfilled in one moment” and they will be solved “not only on the battlefields.”
“To change the bloody and full of false myths consciousness of parts of today’s Ukrainians is the main goal. The goal is for the sake of the peace of future generations of Ukrainians and the opportunity to finally build an open Eurasia – from Lisbon to Vladivostok,” Medvedev wrote.
“From Lisbon to Vladivostok” is a paraphrase of a quote by French President Charles de Gaulle, who in the middle of the 20th century. spoke about the “Greater Europe” on such a scale. Kazakhstan became the most economic Soviet space and the countries of Europe. By this time, different politicians are turning when it comes to relations between countries.
For example, the President, Chairman of the Security Council Vladimir Putin, in his article “To be in America, despite the past” for the German newspaper Die Zeit, on the 80th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War in 2021, wrote that Russia sought to develop its relations with European countries “in the logic of building a Greater Europe, uniting common values and interests.” But “Charles de Gaulle’s dream of a single continent, not even a geographical one” from the Atlantic to the Urals, but a cultural, civilizational one – from Lisbon to Vladivostok” did not come true.
The current President of France, Emmanuel Macron, also recalled de Gaulle: at a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin in 2019, he said that Russia is a European country. “And we deeply believe in this Europe that stretches from Lisbon to Vladivostok,” he said.
The change in the rhetoric of global statistics, the reorientation from Europe to Eurasia, is a continuation of the idea of the need to build a “multipolar world”, says Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine. “These are clichés: about the end of global hemogemony, about the fact that everyone solves their problems on their own without external communication/dictatorship,” he believes.
The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov also speaks about the fact that the vector of Russia’s interests has changed from Europe to Eurasia. “When the Europeans get a little sober from the American bourbon and when they still think that we ourselves should take care of the fate of our continent, Europe, even Eurasia, then it will come – this is not a short-term prospect – but then the time will come after all to reassess our relationship and outcome in a state of dialogue”, – said said he is on the air of the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” in early April.
Aleksey Makarkin, First Vice President of the Center for Technology Attacks, believes that the Goll metaphor would indicate that there is a part of the Russian elite that identifies itself with Europe, despite the break in relations with the environment. After the start of the presidential special operation in Ukraine, Medvedev began to actively speak on political topics, and his rhetoric became sharper, Center for the Development of Current Policy Ilya Grashchenkov.
Previously, the ex-president held the position of “liberal in the government and the Western government” Grashchenkov. After all, President Medvedev “pressed the symbolic setting” of restoring relations with the West, namely with the United States, Barack Obama in 2009. “But the current activity of the deputy chairman of the Security Council grows from those settings that are popular in the Kremlin today,” the expert concludes. “Russia is built in the western conference and arbitration. In a response and a statement, from which we can conclude that we will not only return to Europe, but also as a host,” he says.