![Washington and the myth of `Isolated Russia`](https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_400_400/p/4/005/027/2fc/1538183.jpg)
Nicolas Bonnal
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Translated from French by Tom Winter
"The time has come to say it: It is not Russia that is isolated, it’s Western Europe.
The SPIEF (Saint Petersburg Economic Forum) opens its doors June 18. It has drawn 63 nations. It shows, if there was any need to show it, the worldwide appeal of that beautiful city (all the same, we’re not going to compare it to Las Vegas?), and further, it shows the integration of Russian into the "World of Business” and, what’s more, the world. The importance of the BRICS is even recognized by a West jealous and out-of phase, that can’t congratulate itself enough on having made Russia "a country isolated and condemned throughout the international scene.”
But even at the European level, it can’t be said that the meetings of Vladimir Putin with Pope Francis, Renzi, and Berlusconi — who has demanded an end to the sanctions — are indicators of weakness and abasement. But let’s pass on to other matters…
God’s wisdom, world’s folly, says St. Paul; world’s wisdom, West’s folly we could say, recalling here too, that Russia has been cutting deals with Turkey and Egypt, under the imprecations and sarcasms of the little western press, no so much read anymore as well funded…
Emmanuel Todd has reminded us that Russia represents a grand Gaullist destiny that would permit Europe to escape the stifling American grip, and that it’s a country fundamentally egalitarian, that messes with the imperial and oligarchic grip of American influence that has rubbed off on our anti-nationalist elites.
And the imprecations of the Americans failed to prevent the following facts: Iran has been spared, South America has rediscovered its independence and weighs in with Dilma Rouseff against the American "Big Stick;” China invests in Africa and creates the Asiatic Co-prosperity Sphere with Russia that that continent really needs. The American West meanwhile limits itself to military gesticulations and obfuscating theatricality, and as for the hundreds of experts and grunts, they will not change the givens of central Asia. As for its services in Syria, they limit themselves to the customary hypocrisy…
In reality, it has come time to say it: It is not Russia that is isolated, it’s Western Europe. This little cap on the Asian continent, our dear Valéry has been telling us, grows old, sleepy, poorer, and is letting its chance to contribute to the great Eurasiatic adventure slip away in order to obey the American puller of its puppet strings. Russia with China is winning the world in a free community of nations, leaving to the slaves of Uncle Tom the worries of collapsing into debt, paranoia, and race riots.
My conclusion won’t be optimistic. Fifty years back, Enoch Powell advocated a rapprochement with Russia, and a watch on our southern borders. And now look where we are, with NATO and the American Congress (worse even than Obama) wanting war in the east and invasion from the south. But let’s boost our morale by calling to mind the courageous and lucid positions held by Fillon, Giscard, Schröder, or Schmidt. But these people are not in office. It will be Jupp.