The ability of the Russian people to endure severe financial hardships and resist massive foreign assaults throughout its history, whilst remaining a strong and consolidated nation, has helped Moscow to withstand the pressure of Western elites aimed to undermine the country's political and economic status quo, noted Steven MacMillan, a researcher and geopolitical analyst.
"Throughout 2014 and into 2015, Russia has been under relentless assault by the Western elite who have engaged in economic, strategic and information warfare in a bid to force regime change in Moscow, a fact that is well documented by this point," the analyst pointed out.
Steven MacMillan emphasized that the plan to undermine the Kremlin's authority has turned out to be a far greater challenge than the West could have ever imagined. At the same time, vain Western attempts to overthrow the Russian government could boomerang on the West, fracturing and cracking its unity.
Remarkably, Mr. MacMillan cited George Friedman, the founder and CEO of Stratfor, the US geopolitical intelligence, also known as "the shadow CIA," who said that "Russians' strength is that they can endure things that would break other nations." The Chairman of Stratfor admitted that no one should expect that harsh sanctions policy, including dropping oil price, economic downturns and etc. would prompt Moscow's capitulation anytime soon.
"The most important lesson I might have learned in Russia is that Russians don't respond to economic pressure as Westerners do," George Friedman stated as quoted by Mr. MacMillan.
The analyst also quoted Clifford G. Gaddy and Barry W. Ickes from the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based influential think tank, who wrote in June 2014 that "coping and survival are part of Russian history and the Russian national identity."
The experts referred to the dramatic Siege of Leningrad in World War II and to drastic economic shocks of the 1990s, claiming that Russians could endure significant hardships due to "informal mechanisms of mutual help and self-survival." It should be noted that both Stratfor and the Brookings Institution can hardly be suspected of sympathy for Russia.
Despite an anti-Russia propaganda campaign, sanctions and an "engineered" lowering of the oil price, Russian responded to the sanctions war in an absolutely different manner than what was expected by the Western elite. The economic pressure exerted by the West has "galvanized" the Russian spirit and led to what was dubbed by Western political analysts as Russian "renaissance," Steven MacMillan concluded.
