Jahangir Mohammed, Director of the Ayaan Institute, says Russia and the West are on the verge of an existential war which Muslim nations may well get drawn into.
Vladimir Putin’s speech on September 30 represents a seminal moment on the global political stage. It marks the point of no retreat for the USA (and its allies) and Russia. It will likely lead to a much wider war than Ukraine, if not another global war. Neither side seems now able to back down.
In his speech, President Putin spelled out what Russia is fighting and willing to die for. Whilst at the same time Ukraine’s President Zelensky sent in his application to join NATO, backed by the USA. A defeat for either side now means much more than losing a war.
For Russia, defeat would mean surrendering to the Western liberal international order and the death of an independent Russia, leading to further dismemberment. It would also end the dream of resurrecting a historic Russian state with different civilizational values from that of the liberal international order.
Whilst defeat for the U.S. would mean the inevitable end of U.S./Western hegemony and the global exploitation which sustains it.
Some extracts from Putin’s speech below highlight the significance of the Ukraine war (a war between Russia and the West). The speech is a rallying call to Russian people to fight for the survival of their history, culture, religion, traditions, and future. At the same time, nations in the developing world and rising powers are in effect being urged to side with Russia in what is presented as an epic struggle for new world order as opposed to the West.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and West had already been bullying and intimidating developing and rising nations to stand with the West against Russia, on sanctions and trade.
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It is therefore also a dangerous moment for Europe and the world. The U.S. and its allies against Russia are mainly Western nations. On the other hand, Russia draws its support from the rising powers of China, India, Iran, Muslim states, and African states. We are now seeing developing and African nations openly saying what has the West ever given us except wars, suffering and exploitation. The ground is being prepared by both Russia and the West to take sides and a wider conflagration.
Russia and pre war Nazi Germany
Russia is severely sanctioned which will eventually lead to an economic crisis for its people. Whilst European countries are facing unprecedented energy and poverty crises this winter and in the coming years. The rest of the world has also been affected, with many countries facing food insecurity and a cash inflation/reserve crisis. The blowing up of the Nord 2 Europe pipeline and the limits on grain supplies coming out of Ukraine will create more economic misery.
The situation faced by Russia has similarities to that faced by Germany after the First World War. Western nations made Germany pay the price for its role in that war. The German response was a revival of militarism, nationalism, and dreams of past greatness. The threat faced by others coupled with an economic crisis after World War I led to the rise of Nazism and Hitler.
Putin is no Hitler, and it was Russia that ended the dreams of the Nazis in Europe. However, Putin is not afraid to wage war and invade countries in pursuit of his strategic interests and has demonstrated this several times. Nor has he lost a war yet, and, has nuclear weapons at his disposal as a last resort.
For Putin and Russia, there is no going back. In his speech, Putin rightly pointed out that the Western owners of the neo-colonial model will also cling to it, to the end. The West faces another rising economic power, China, and a challenge to its international liberal order from it. China also claims to want to recreate a civilisation in its own historical image based on trade and the new Silk Road. In the face of these rising challenges to its global order and a declining U.S. empire, Western nations have rallied to its defence.
The War on Terror against the Muslim world has ended and been replaced by a new Cold War against China and Russia. This week at the Conservative Party conference, I expect that agenda will be made clearer by Prime Minister Liz Truss. British and European people will be told that the stakes are high, and they must pay the economic price for the preservation of Western European global hegemony (dressed as freedom, democracy, human rights, and “our way of life”).
Both Russia and the European West are facing a decisive moment in their history from which there is no turning back. It may lead to either the birth of a new world order which could benefit the developing world, or a wider European and global war dragging in many more states, economic chaos, and a nuclear strike once more.
Countries around the world are being urged to take sides and consider the benefits of the existing Western world order with the USA as unipolar power on one side; and an emerging multipower world order with Russia and China as a counterbalance to the USA and West on the other, leading to greater freedom independence and economic development.
The world holds its breath.
Extracts from President Putin’s Speech
“Today we are fighting for a just and free path, first of all for ourselves, for Russia, for diktat, despotism to remain forever in the past. I am convinced that countries and peoples understand that a policy based on the exclusivity of anyone, on the suppression of other cultures and peoples, is inherently criminal, that we must turn this shameful page. The collapse of Western hegemony that has begun is irreversible. And I repeat again: it will not be the same as before.
“The battlefield to which fate and history have called us is the battlefield for our people, for great historical Russia. (Applause.) For great historical Russia, for future generations, for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We must protect them from enslavement, from monstrous experiments that are aimed at crippling their minds and souls.”
“Today we are fighting so that it would never occur to anyone that Russia, our people, our language, our culture can be taken and erased from history. Today, we need the consolidation of the entire society, and such cohesion can only be based on sovereignty, freedom, creation, and justice. Our values are humanity, mercy, and compassion.”
“We will protect our land with all the forces and means at our disposal and will do everything to ensure the safe life of our people. This is the great liberation mission of our people.”
“It is clear that the current neo-colonial model is ultimately doomed. But I repeat that her real owners will cling to her to the end. They simply have nothing to offer the world, except for the preservation of the same system of robberies and racketeering.”
“In fact, they spit on the natural right of billions of people, most of humanity, to freedom and justice, to determine their own future on their own. Now they have completely moved to a radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family.”
“I repeat, the dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. This is a challenge for everyone. Such a complete denial of man, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, the suppression of freedom acquires the features of a “reverse religion” – outright Satanism. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, denouncing the false prophets, says: By their fruits you will know them. And these poisonous fruits are already obvious to people – not only in our country, in all countries, including for many people and in the West itself.”
