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The speech of Nikolai Levichev during the Government Hour in the State Duma with participation of Sergey Lavrov, Head of the RF MFA 19 ноября 2014 On November 19, the State Duma hosted the Government Hour with participation of Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Nikolai Levichev, Vice Chairman of the State Duma presented the position of the A JUST RUSSIA Duma faction: Esteemed Sergey Victorovich and my esteemed colleagues, Of course, we all know that this year has been extremely difficult for the Russian diplomacy. I’d like to say that taking into account a great variety of instantaneous problems our foreign service had to solve, it generally coped with its tasks. Russia with weak economy and a bad image is the Russia that is most convenient for the West. Hence the sanctions and the information war. Therefore, our diplomatic answer shall be constructive and distinct. Thinking of various scenarios of development of the world economic and political processes, we should remember that a lot of countries and nations just do not have any future within the framework of the current system. They will either stop being parties to the historical process or lose their national and cultural identity. The time of relatively peaceful globalization is gone together with the sharp deterioration of the world economic crisis and growth of geopolitical tension. Never has the world ever been so complicated, interdependent and fragile. Futuristic models and high technologies constantly collide with rather archaic political practices. Claims to global dominance lead to nothing but the rise of international conflicts and the growth of confrontation fraught with danger of a new world war. If we do not create a fundamentally new design of world politics, as it was at the beginning of the XXth century, we will be thrown into cruelty and total violence. In politics, pressure of force must be replaced by understanding and respect for other political anthropology and value systems. But now nobody would dare to give a quick reply to the question ‘what must new world architecture be like.’ However, the eastern vector of our foreign policy is a well-timed and perspective step made in this direction. Russia has a lot of historical allies in APR cooperation with whom may not only stabilize the region but also improve political climate all over the world. Many countries already look at our country as at a potential fair arbitrator and guarantor of security. So far choice of the political tools appropriate for the given task has been limited. Of course there are high-potential formats in the region: BRICS, SCO, APEC (economic cooperation), ASEAN Regional Forum on Security, and the East Asia Summit, but in my opinion, all these organizations have membership limits and deal with rather local issues such as economic cooperation, counter-terrorism, cyber security and ecology. They are unlikely to be able to counter serious geopolitical challenges or even armed conflicts over territories and resources. It appears that there are required new political grounds for searching for reasonable exits from acute situations, as Sergey Victorovich (Head of the RF MFA) has already said today. But we remember that during the cold war period Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CCSE) was created which became the basis for appearance of OSCE. Later on, its importance significantly decreased but the events in Ukraine have shown to what extent this format is adaptable and requested. I think Russia might initiate creation of an OSCE analogue in the eastern direction, let us say, on the basis of Conference of Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). Such an organization might become a tool for prevention of conflicts in the Asian-Pacific region. A similar universal ground may be created for a dialogue between deputies, public opinion leaders and intellectuals who are preoccupied with searching for the ways of destruction of false myths and removal of the ideological and political barriers. It is necessary to search for the forms of cooperation with the civil societies of our partner countries. We must not ignore traditional channels through which we exert Russian influence, I mean education. This is reduction of education quotas for foreign students. What a contrast with thousands of African students we had during the soviet period (that’s what Sergey Victorovich mentioned). Just one example: only 125 people from Indonesia study in Russia; they are from the country with the population of 250 million and economic turnover exceeding $3 bln. The demand for getting education in Russia is extremely high there. What kind of the so-called "soft force" can we speak about if even after a query of the Russian Railways which is implementing a very large project there, we failed to accept all people who were eager to study in Russia? Thirty people who were longing for becoming railway engineers were devoid of this opportunity even after the recruiting that had been held. That’s about foreigners. But what about fellow citizens? Children of our compatriots who do not work abroad are admitted to embassy schools only on a paid basis; it is about 150 Euro a month per child. So far they have been eager to educate their children at Russian schools but what about tomorrow? In conclusion, I’d like to express confidence that our diplomacy will be able to break a vicious circle of violence in the world and provide a legal model of relations between countries, the model that will use a new humanistic language of politics.
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