“United Russia” took up the world order – Newspaper Kommersant No. 55 (7500) dated 03/31/2023

On Thursday, the United Russia office hosted the first meeting of the organizing committee of the Forum of Supporters of the Fight Against Neocolonialism. It was conducted personally by the chairman of the party, deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev. Representatives of China, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Myanmar, Pakistan and other countries ready to build a multipolar world joined the discussion – mainly via video-conferencing. In their speeches, they even expanded on the stated topics and called for a fight not only against neo-colonialism, but also against neo-imperialism and neo-liberalism. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Medvedev urged to decide by May on the final list of participants in the forum, which is to be held in October.

In his opening speech, Dmitry Medvedev explained that the upcoming forum should “protect the interests of those who for many centuries acted as the exploited side, who were exploited by the colonial powers.” At the same time, he explained in detail what he meant by the term “neo-colonialism” and listed its victims: “The colonial system itself collapsed, but its legacy persists. The methods of influence have changed. Instead of open forceful submission, the owners of the colonies impose their values ​​on the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, hinder the development of their own culture, and treat the citizens of their states as third-class people. Not only in everyday habits. They are behaving rudely.”

After that, the chairman of United Russia also named those who, in his opinion, are pursuing this same neo-colonialist policy. This list includes the UK, France, Germany, and, of course, the United States of America. Mr. Medvedev did not bypass the fashionable topic of IT technologies in his speech. As it turned out, neo-colonialism manifests itself in this area as well. According to the deputy chairman of the Security Council, the “collective West” monopolizes key platforms and services in the IT sector and promotes the interests of its companies due to unequal access to the digital infrastructure of developed and undeveloped countries. In addition, the climate agenda is also used in “neo-colonial interests”.

On the whole, it followed from Dmitry Medvedev’s speech that “comprehensive and decisive measures” were required to combat neo-colonialism.

Further, according to the scenario of the event, the word was given to the “exploited” themselves, who willingly supported the offensive impulse of the Russian politician. The interpreters sometimes struggled to keep up with the new revelations of modern neo-colonialism, although for some simultaneous interpreters the pronunciation of this word caused tangible difficulties.

New forms and methods of colonialism violate international justice and equality, inflict great pain and disaster on the peoples, Liu Jianchao, head of the international department of the CPC Central Committee, set the tone for “speeches from the field.”

Zimbabwe Minister of Defense, Chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front Party Oppa Michinguri Kashiri began by thanking “His Excellency” Dmitry Medvedev and United Russia. And then she explained that neo-colonialism is directly related to the “new liberal imperialism” and is based on the belief of some countries that they represent “higher forms of life.” “He (neocolonialism.— “b”) is based on the outrageous use of military intervention to overthrow the legitimate governments of states,” Ms. Kashiri elaborated, referring to the precedents in Libya and Iraq. Other participants in the event added Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen to this black list.

“Indonesia get ready… Myanmar get ready…” commanded meanwhile the moderator of the discussion, Senator Andrey Klimov. The participants in the event strictly followed his commands and added new colors to the overall anti-colonial picture. Thus, the speaker from Myanmar expressed his readiness to condemn the “colonialism of the past” and together build a new world order and a multipolar world. The speaker from Indonesia spoke about the threats of modern imperialism, which was born “from the womb of capitalism.” Representative of Nicaragua handed over “a fraternal revolutionary greeting from Comandante Daniel Ortega.” The envoy of Pakistan, referring for some reason to Chinese President Xi Jinping, prophesied the end of the century-long hegemony of the West and the beginning of the “age of the East.” The Syrian comrade praised the leadership of the Russian Federation for strengthening the “strings of Russian society” and urged not to forget about the fight against neoliberalism, “which is a common enemy for progressive humanity.” And from Venezuela there was a recognition that earlier “we were a little divided”, along with an expression of readiness to fight together for a “multipolar world”.

“I followed with great interest the speeches and assessments that were made,” Dmitry Medvedev summed up the discussion with pleasure.

He stressed that the potential participants of the forum represent the interests of “the world majority, and not some separate part of humanity”, and suggested that by May they should finally decide on the composition of the participants and prepare a general joint appeal.

Andrey Vinokurov