Speaking to Sputnik, Anastasia Likhacheva stressed that as Russia is facing economic sanctions from the West, it should seek new alliances around the world, in “global majority” nations. However, it mustn’t repeat the same mistakes that it made while partnering with the West.
Sputnik: We have seen thousands of restrictions and economic sanctions imposed against Russia within the past six months or so. Is there something the West can still do to impose more sanctions, or are we seeing the limit of them?
Anastasia Likhacheva: Definitely it's not the limit. The sky's the limit. There are some sanctions that could be imposed on some banks that are still not on the list and aren't cut off from SWIFT, some extra bans on Russian oil and gas. But what is even more important to monitor is the dynamics of non-enforcement of third countries that don't want to impose the sanctions. They didn't put it in the legislation, they didn't support these restrictive measures. But the toolkit of enforcement of the United States for India, to China, to the Gulf states is pretty large. Until now these countries have managed to resist, but of course, the United States and European countries still have resources for this enforcement. That would be the most important parameter of the sanctions campaign in the upcoming half a year.
Sputnik: Judging by the discussions here at the forum, discussions about Russia-India, Russia-China, Russia-ASEAN, is it an adequate response for Russia to work to turn towards the East? And is this potential already being used to the fullest extent or are we going to see more of this coming? Is there a hope that Russia can use this resource?
Anastasia Likhacheva: There is a high potential for improvement, for the establishment of new projects, new relations with Asian countries. But speaking broadly, it's not only the East, it's Africa and Latin America. And these countries are on the same path with Asian countries in their wish to get sustainable supplies of very important goods, like energy, food, and water-intensive goods. Russia can play a very important role here and also be one of the partners in the efforts of these countries to avoid technological overdependence on one player.
Sputnik: But can they - all these Asian, African, Latin American countries - replace the West and its resources?
Anastasia Likhacheva: It's not a question of replacement. It's a question of our own, our own restructuring of our Russian economy, while relying on the potential of the global majority. We can't repeat and we shouldn't repeat the model we had with the West for the last 30 years. We have to build a new one inside and outside.
Sputnik: With all these powerful players that you mentioned, are we already in the multipolar world or are we on the way?
Anastasia Likhacheva: As a scholar, I love the term multipolar world, because nobody can really explain in detail what it means. At least, we have two, the North and the South. If we speak about nuclear power, there are more than two players. If you speak about economy, it's already pretty multidimensional. What is most interesting is to what extent our world is multipolar in terms of models of development, not in terms of the scale of power. And this is a big question for the coming years to solve.
Sputnik: And my final question, when the smoke clears with the Ukraine conflict, what are we going to see? Will there be new principles of Russia's relations with the West?
Anastasia Likhacheva: Relying on the whole history of the world, one day we'll see this principle, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like a very next day perspective.