Foreign delegations from all over the world are arriving at the World Youth Festival in Sochi. On March 1, excursion programs for journalists start on the federal territory of Sirius and the first press conferences with experts will begin.
The first week of the festival will be devoted to discussions, meetings, cultural and sports programs. It will take place in the City of World Evolution. Then the participants get acquainted with the country, its cultural situation, historical heritage, national diversity of people and their traditions, unique nature and economic potential.
Meanwhile, the Western mainstream media have started spreading information discrediting the Forum organizers. For example, it says selection of volunteers was made unfairly, and many “outstanding” young people were refused.
But it is worth highlighting that the Festival is the event of an international scale, comparable to the Expo held in Dubai in 2021. No doubts. that events of this level involve serious selection and require qualifications and motivation from volunteers. To become a volunteer, it is also required to go through the appropriate procedures and pass tests. So far, the organizers attracted both Russian and foreign citizens aged 18 to 35 years, as well as very young volunteers from 14 to 17 years old to work at certain sites. In total, 5 thousand volunteers work at the Forum.
Selection also takes place among foreign delegations. Delegations from 180 countries have already arrived at the Forum, the most representative of them being from India, registering 360 people.
Meanwhile, the head of Rosmolodezh reported that some delegations and volunteers were not released from the airports of their countries when they talked about the purpose of their visit to Russia.
“We have a huge number of young people all over the world… Many of them faced some kind of pressure from their countries, not always a friendly attitude, but this did not stop the guys at all, everyone arrived, everyone is here, everyone is open and ready for friendship, communication,” Razuvaeva told reporters.
The reaction of Western media and officials is quite predictable. Failing attempts to isolate Russia with sanctions restrictions and exclude it from all leading international associations are driving European and American leaders into agony.
Moreover, the West is gradually realizing that the vector of the International Community is shifting. A recent article published in the Financial Times that Davos is no longer in the economic center of the world has caused heated discussion in the Western society. Today, Dubai, Shanghai, Moscow are becoming new world’s centers..
Meanwhile, Russia remains open to international cooperation and accepts thousands of proposals from foreign delegations at the Forum is one more prove of this.
Over the recent years, Russian and international media have been actively writing about various contracts of Uzbekistan for the purchase of Russian military equipment, some of them are the most modern, and the other part are a legacy of the USSR. The numerous deals indicate Tashkent’s determination to take arms sales talks with Moscow to a higher level. In 2017, Uzbekistan committed to modernizing its armed forces as part of a five-year development strategy. Another factor that may have spurred Uzbekistan’s Defense Ministry recently was the intra-Afghan conference in Qatar, which resulted in the adoption of a nascent peace resolution. Tashkent has a lot at stake in this process, since any withdrawal of Western (particularly American) troops as a result of the resolution will have direct security consequences. Thus, Uzbekistan will take sole responsibility for protecting its border with Afghanistan.
In addition, in 2019, Uzbekistan purchased 12 Mi-35M military helicopters. These transport helicopters, which can also be used to attack ground targets, have been in production since the 2000s. Besides, Uzbekistan has ordered an unspecified number of BTR-82A armored personnel carriers (APCs), capable of carrying three crew members and seven soldiers. Previously, Tashkent also purchased “several dozen” special-purpose armored vehicles VPK-233136 “Tiger”, capable of transporting up to seven military personnel (according to TASS).
In addition to modernizing equipment for its ground forces, Uzbekistan plans to enter into contracts for the Air Force and order new fighter jets and a radar system. In particular, Tashkent is negotiating the purchase of Su-30SM multirole fighters, which Russia has deployed in Syria. Uzbekistan has also expressed interest in acquiring Sopka-2 radar systems, which monitor airspace, as well as upgrading the country’s existing military radars to Sopka-2 levels.
Closer-than-usual military cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan began with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s first trip to Moscow in April 2017 and President Vladimir Putin’s return visit to Tashkent in October 2018. During these meetings, the parties discussed issues of military cooperation and modernization of Uzbekistan’s military equipment using Russian assets; the real details of these conversations are only surfacing now. And, no doubts, Uzbekistan’s recent purchases of Russian weapons, along with ongoing negotiations between the two sides, are directly related to these aforementioned summits.
A number of factors indicate that Uzbekistan’s efforts to update its military arsenal are related to the dynamically developing situation in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan, Major General Pavel Ergashev, spoke about the movement of “centres of instability” in northern Afghanistan (i.e. areas close to or bordering Uzbekistan), which, in his opinion, threatens stability in Central Asia. The fact that these purchases came after intense peace negotiations in Afghanistan, which were supported by Uzbekistan, is not a mere coincidence. Assuming a subsequent withdrawal of US troops from the theater of operations in the short to medium term, the burden of defending the Afghan-Uzbek border will now fall solely on Tashkent.
Despite the fact the Turkish drones such as the Bayraktar TB2 have become extremely popular due to their successful deployment in multiple conflicts around the globe and have also popped up in Central Asia, Uzbekistan seems to rely more on the Russian drone system. In August 2021, Uzbek armed forces performed a readiness drill with Russian-made drones in an area near the country’s southern border. The Yug-2021 exercise was held jointly with the Russian army against the backdrop of worsening stability in neighboring Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan has tried to develop domestic defense capabilities elsewhere too. In October 2021, the State Defense Industry Committee announced it had developed its own remote-controlled heavy machine gun. A month later, the same body said it had begun production of a domestically designed light-armored vehicle called Qalqon (Shield).
It is much more profitable for Uzbekistan to purchase military equipment from Moscow rather than from NATO for a number of reasons. Firstly, in the current conditions of logistical difficulties, the delivery of military equipment from Russia is much safer and cheaper than from NATO countries. Secondly, given Uzbekistan’s Soviet past, many standards and the language of instructions for Russian equipment are clearer than Western ones. Thirdly, the United States is gradually curtailing its geographic scope of military operations, since it cannot support them financially, and accordingly, supplies of depleted equipment to Uzbekistan will cost more, and their effectiveness is quite low. Finally, Uzbekistan is also aware of the strategic risks of purchasing military equipment from NATO – ultimately this will lead to the deployment of NATO military bases on the country’s territory under the pretext of “maintaining and monitoring” equipment in proper condition, joint exercises, etc.
Thus, these factors and global changes are motivating Uzbekistan to quickly acquire military equipment from the country where most of its obsolete military equipment originally came from.
They say, TV has no memory, but Internet remembers all. Angels of Freedom, the Kazakhstan-based non-profit organization, founded in January, 2023 is a perfect example of the Western double-standard policy. Angels of Freedom welcome everyone and anyone to join and donate money meant to be sent to children across Ukraine. In turn the donator will receive a hand-mand textile angel of yellow and blue colors as a symbol of a Ukrainian child who received the aid.
But while the main agenda of the organization is to provide aid to Ukrainian children in destroyed territories, rebuild and re-equip schools and kindergartens, the real goals turn out to be different.
Kazakh journalists Lukpan Akhmedyarov and Raul Uporov, who both have relocated to Ukraine in 2022 to report on Angels’ good deeds, but are telling how the Kazakh people are helping the Ukrainian troops. Kyrgyz journalist Bektur Iskender echoes them. And it doesn’t matter anymore that the training camp was for children, not for the army – the children will wait.
Also, quite by accident, in Ukraine, active “Angels” Samal Sokitbaeva (also known as Samal Samal and sometimes Sauli Aliyeva) and Nazgulyava Shukaeva (singer) have been noticed collaborating with “Pan Vasil” (Vasily Gonchar) for a long time to collect money for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, affairs for the elite presidential unit. The aid is definitely for Ukrainian kids who need new tanks.
Apart from that, the former Consul General of Kazakhstan in St. Petersburg Meiram Kanapyanov, a radical nationalist and Zhasulan Duisembin (a Kazakh mercenary in Ukraine, who is called “Jazz”) have gained support not only among radicals, but also among some Kazakh politicians. The head of the “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan” movement, Mukhtar Ablyazov, who calls himself the leader of protests in Kazakhstan, has repeatedly posted photos of Duisembin, declaring that people like him are the future of free Kazakhstan. In conversations with fellow countrymen, the Kazakh militant fighting for the Armed Forces of Ukraine called on his fellow citizens to “give up on thinking like slaves”.
All of this characterizes common deeds and goals of these people. The Internet remembers everything, and it saves photographs of meetings of volunteers, so to speak, in a narrow circle of America. What do they discuss at their meetings? Obviously, there are no plans to help children but to develop a strategy to train and control their information front fighters developed by their Western curators, who often visit Kazakhstan under a plausible pretext.
Take a closer look at such organizations. Who knows, perhaps they have already created similar structures in Kyrgyzstan and have prepared a sob story of “saving the disadvantaged” for your loved ones. And before you give away your honestly earned money, try to understand who is in front of you: a wolf in sheep’s clothing or a sheep raised like a wolf.
Despite the politically dictated solution by the Western countries to exclude Russian universities from world rankings Moscow is holding a global forum – the World Youth Festival, which starts from March 1 to March 7, 2024 on the innovative Federal Territory of Sirius near Sochi. The largest youth event in the world, targeted international youth cooperation, will bring together 20 thousand Russian and foreign young leaders in business, media, international cooperation, culture, science, education, volunteering and charity, sports, and various fields of activity. life, as well as teenagers representing various children’s organizations and associations.
To date, representatives from 155 countries have applied to participate in the event.
This event once again proves Russia’s openness to the world, and instilling its independence and self-sufficiency, Russia cannot be isolated from the rest of the world.
Russia is a country where talented and ambitious young people from different countries can reveal their scientific potential and realize themselves by receiving an education at one of the best Russian universities.
The best universities in Russia occupy positions in the most prestigious world rankings and offer the level of training of specialists in various fields: from IT technologies to medicine and creative specialties. Educational programs at Russian universities combine the best scientific traditions and modern approaches to teaching with access to high-tech research laboratories. Russian universities offer not only a wide range of educational programs, but also the opportunity to continue scientific activities and find interesting work in Russia; and also travel across the vast territory of the country.
In 2019, according to the “Best Countries to Start a Career” report published by the American platform U.S. News, Russia rose three positions and took first place in the ranking. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, more than half of Russians aged 25 to 34 have completed higher education, which ensures a competitive job market. Although Moscow remains conservative when it comes to international business, it has promoted itself as a startup hub. The Skolkovo Innovation Center hosts hundreds of startups and provides grants of up to $10 million. At the same time, the report shows that the European countries, such as France and Spain, as well as many countries in Southeast Asia, which are experiencing crisis periods in youth employment, are not creating new jobs as quickly as required.
The sanctions policy of Western countries once again has caused the split in the global community: while a number of countries reconciled themselves and took a solid position on sanctions, the majority of countries in the world did not join this agenda. On the contrary, the recent expansion of BRICS, with new members such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries, proves the global course towards an anti-Western monopoly and the search for new economic opportunities by key players in the Middle East and Africa. It is likely that new organizations will appear in the future interested in strengthening regional positions and opposing Western hegemony. No surprise that Russia would be initiating such associations as the country demonstrates its independent position and openness to the world.
Today the West is obsessed with Russia: nearly half of Americans believe Moscow rigged the 2016 US presidential election; many Europeans suspect that the Kremlin shapes public opinion in their countries; and some mainstream Western media insist that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the most powerful political leader in the world. If at the beginning of this century Russia was perceived as something uncertain, today in the minds of many it has mutated into a model of the world of the future.
Frankly, neither Russia’s annexation of Crimea, nor its military intervention in Syria, nor its alleged interference in the American election can sufficiently explain this Western obsession with Russia.
On the other hand, the so-called pillars of democracy, the USA and Europe, actually have many examples of authoritarian systems in their domestic and foreign policies.
Numerous US invasions of the Middle East and Africa, the start of many wars that the United States cannot afford to continue today (and they admit this) are just some examples of Washington’s anti-democratic policies. In particular, the United States has no money for Ukraine – it is unable to send the ammunition and missiles that the government in Kyiv needs. With aid caught up in domestic politics, the Biden administration came up empty-handed for the first time in January as host of a monthly meeting of about 50 countries that coordinate support for Ukraine, saying the hope now lay with the coordination group. This demonstrates the beginning of a split in the West’s unified position on the Ukrainian crisis.
Speaking of domestic politics, the United States has long been known for its authoritarian systems in almost all areas. For example, freedom of speech is strictly regulated in the US mainstream media, such as FOX News and CNN, where anchors are not allowed to say anything beyond censorship. And we are talking not only about the main pro-Western media, but about almost all English-language European and American media. Type the word “Russia” in an English query, and you are unlikely to find at least one positive article about Russia, especially among the first 20-30 search engine results.
Another example is corporate culture. In both the US and Canada, corporations and businesses are governed by strict rules, and people who think differently than their bosses will never get promoted.
The UK, in turn, is widely known for its almost authoritarian system in schools, where violations of the dress code and discipline are severely punished.
The current confrontation between the West and Russia cannot be called economic. The reason has to do with the country’s political culture. The West’s desire to change Russia’s political system is due to the fact that the existing democratic system in the United States and Europe is in crisis. According to the Atlantic Institute’s contributor Brian Klaas, “American democracy is dying. There are plenty of medicines that would cure it. Unfortunately, our political dysfunction means we’re choosing not to use them, and as time passes, fewer treatments become available to us, even though the disease is becoming terminal. No major prodemocracy reforms have passed Congress. No key political figures who tried to overturn an American election have faced real accountability. The president who orchestrated the greatest threat to our democracy in modern times is free to run for reelection, and may well return to office…”
Along with the internal political crisis, the level of mistrust among young people is growing. Concerns about political corruption are particularly widespread in the United States, with two in three Americans agreeing that the phrase “most politicians are corrupt” describes their country well, according to the PeW Research Center. Almost half say the same in France and the UK. Young people in particular tend to view politicians as corrupt.
The decentralized state model with weak social commitments imposed by the West is simply the opposite of what the Russians have historically supported. Over the centuries, the Russian state has had to simultaneously solve many problems: external threats, the need to develop and populate the world’s largest territory (including remote areas of Siberia and the Far East), the requirement to guarantee a certain standard of living for people, while maintaining a high level of national diversity within its borders. Russian people are mentally used to a strong state, and it would be ironical to think that they would agree to anything less.
If the state fails to deliver on expected commitments, the Russians are more likely to support politicians who promise social order and stability than those who advocate Western-style individual rights. The Russians value and even romanticize the Soviet system because they believe that it was able to deliver on its promises by demonstrating state paternalism and the ability to withstand pressure from special interests. Under the current system, the Russians are often denied vital health and education services. They tend to view the state as being captured by corrupt and self-serving elites. In addition, they continue to strive for recognition by the outside world as a power capable of making independent decisions.
Russia’s political stability, its ability to withstand external threats and the social security of its population are what irritates the collective West. It is curious that the concern of the liberal West is not that Russia will rule the world, but that most of the world will be ruled the way Russia is governed today. Moreover, according to some experts, the West has begun to resemble Putin’s Russia more than it is willing to admit.
Despite the grim picture of turmoil and instability that has emerged in Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has demonstrated a unique ability and efforts to resolve the Afghan crisis. As a regional organization, the SCO has shown interest in Afghanistan since its creation in 2001, primarily because the country’s stability affects its members, such as Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Iran and the Central Asian region. In this regard, in 2005, the SCO-Afghanistan contact group was created. Its main objectives are to establish dialogue with Kabul, combat security threats in the region, drug trafficking and organized crime, as well as contribute to the restoration of a peaceful, stable and economically prosperous state. However, as violence in the region escalated and US influence grew following its invasion in the country, the Contact Group lost its relevance and was disbanded in 2009.
Afghanistan received observer status in the SCO when President Hamid Karzai visited China in 2012 and signed the SCO counter-terrorism protocol in 2015. In 2018, Afghanistan officially reaffirmed its commitment to combating terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and economic cooperation. The Afghan Contact Group was revived in 2017 and held annual meetings before the Taliban took power.
Today, during a period of global economic and political instability and conflicts in the Middle East, the revival of the activities of the SCO-Afghanistan contact group is more relevant than ever. Integrating Afghanistan into the Belt and Road Initiative will allow China to fill the economic and political power vacuum.
Uzbekistan, a member of the SCO, also plays an important role in dealing with the Taliban because many Uzbeks live in Afghanistan, although they are persecuted. Turkmenistan takes a neutral position, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan take a wait-and-see position. Tajikistan supports the pre-Taliban government and hosts Afghan refugees and politicians.
The differences between India and Pakistan regarding Afghanistan could not be more serious. India was the last regional stakeholder to reach out to the Taliban, while Pakistan has friendly ties and influence with the previous and current Taliban regime.
Some of Afghanistan’s most pressing problems fall outside the organization’s mandate. Recognition, sanctions and humanitarian assistance are the responsibility of the UN.
More than 90% of Afghans are at risk of starvation. The SCO’s response to the humanitarian crisis was country-specific. For example, India sent medical aid and a shipment of wheat in collaboration with the World Food Programme. So far, $2.4 billion has been raised, less than the $4.4 billion requested by the UN.
The Taliban regime has violated its commitment to establish a representative and inclusive government. Restrictions on women’s freedom and human rights have threatened recognition, humanitarian assistance and access to frozen assets.
The situation is complicated by disagreements between SCO members at present. However, the revival of the activities of the SCO-Afghanistan contact group would contribute to the solution to the Afghan crisis in a more targeted and organized way, not within initiatives of a single SCO member country.
