politics International models unsuited to prevailing“ historical, cultural or religious” conditions.
Some American participants pushed back against the Russian version of events. Clifford Kupchan, the chairman of the New Yorkbased risk consultancy Eurasia Group, asserted that since early September, Russia had seemingly abandoned a joint approach on Syria in favor of“ extreme violence” that included the bombing of hospitals and other civilian targets.
Kupchan argued that“ Central Asia also presents a real challenge and a necessity for joint action,” due to the threat of foreign fighters returning from Syria. He called on Moscow and Washington to work together to“ help regional governments to combat terror” while encouraging them“ to avoid infringing excessively on human rights.”
A participant from Central Asia, former Kyrgyz foreign minister Muratbek Imanaliev, disputed Kupchan’ s analysis, maintaining that Central Asia faces less transnational terrorism, religious extremism, and geopolitical conflict than the Middle East or Europe. He insisted that, despite limited defense capabilities and souring economies, Central Asian states“ can definitely promote political, interregional, and interfaith dialogue to find solutions to our common problems.”
While Russian speakers denounced perceived Westernsponsored efforts to promote regime change, many Western participants complained about Moscow’ s embrace of so-called hybrid warfare – tactics that are most visible in the Kremlin’ s dealings with Ukraine. Several also expressed alarm about Russian meddling in US politics, notably the Kremlin’ s alleged support for Donald Trump’ s presidential bid.
Putin denied that Russia had the ability to influence the US political process and pledged to work with the winner of the November 8 election. Nonetheless, he praised Trump for being a man of the people and accused Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’ s team of inventing stories about Moscow’ s supporting the developer-turned-politician.
Putin also mockingly voiced a wistful desire“ to possess such a propaganda machine here in Russia” that could sway events.
In recent years, Russia has made progress in“ deconstructing the US-imposed world order” by joining with China to work on Eurasian-focused political and economic projects, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, said Russian international relations expert Sergei Karaganov.
Not all the Russian participants fully backed the Kremlin line. Exfinance minister Alexei Kudrin, for example, alluding to Moscow’ s deepening economic difficulties, noted that Russians could no longer rely on“ old methods and old prescriptions” to deal with the“ extraordinary” challenges facing the country. Feedback on:- reporter @ dayafterindia. com
November 16-30, 2016 The Dayafter
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