The soft power against Russia, The renewed old weapon
Moscow – North-Press Agency
Fahim Al-Sorani
A new crisis appears to be on the verge of the Russian-US relations, especially after the US Agency for International Development (USAID) unveiled a new strategy titled “Countering malign Kremlin influence”, has stirred resentment within Russia.
In this regard, the director of the US Agency for International Development, Mark Green, revealed the strategy to develop a mechanism to help “Washington-friendly countries” in boosting their economic and democratic stability to face these challenges, and to mitigate the effects of the “Kremlin aggression using soft power against a number of institutions”.
Among the accusations mentioned in the report: “Moscow is working tirelessly to undermine economic liberalism, impede democratic development and weaken the sovereignty of countries”.
While the Russian Foreign Ministry hastened to condemn the “new strategy”, describing it in a statement as “The coming voice from the Cold War”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry added that the content of the document, “Trying to create an anti-Russian sentiment and accusing it of stopping the wheel of democracy everywhere, raises questions about the mental abilities of those who worked on the report”.
The statement also mentioned the presence of influential parties within the US Pentagon trying in various ways to prevent the normalization of relations between Moscow and Washington, as seeking to destroy it.
The Russian Foreign Ministry regretted the presence of anti-Russian activists in the United States, who are dreaming of controlling the world, seek to thwart all the efforts by Russia to start constructive mutual cooperation based on the common interests of the two countries.
Putin-Trump Meeting
In this regard, the political writer Alexander Karovin told North-Press that he believes this report came after a number of positive indicators brought by the recent meeting between Presidents Putin and Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan, which resulted in an agreement to intensify the dialogue on strategic security between the two sides. This assures that the Russian Foreign Ministry was accurate in its expression regarding the presence of power within the United States, working to impede any possible rapprochement.
The Russian writer recalled the statement of the Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, after Putin – Trump meeting in Osaka, which held optimism regarding Moscow “assumes that the concerned US officials have received the necessary instructions from President Donald Trump to intensify talks with Moscow on the strategic stability”.
Antonov described the US Agency report as “disappointing”, and that Moscow should face the new entitlement, represented by the powers of “reverse tension” and the hawks within the decision-making circles in the United States, are holding on the strands of the geopolitical game, and on the joint relations with Russia, referring in this context to the feelings of anti-Russians, which have erupted abruptly in Georgia, on the popular and official levels.
Soft power
While the political writer Alexander Karovin stressed while talking to North-Press that the talks about “The will of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to help certain countries reduce dependence on the Russian energy resources by expanding integration with Western economies, and provide tools that can help them to form more representative political parties and groups, is not a return to the policy of soft power in the nineties of the last century, which was resorted to by the west countries, by activating the so-called power of the civil society and NGOs, describing it as a “Trojan Horse,” which launched the destruction of the Soviet Union”.