The events in Ukraine and the response of the collective West to them lead to some observations that may be of interest to the general public.
The first trend is related to the international law. The Ukraine conflict has marked a deepening crisis of said international law. Confidence in the policies of Western countries has gone. Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian events, states have actually lost a large number of international agreements that previously formed a kind of framework for bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Many of them have been violated and have now become a thing of the past.
The second trend is rather socioeconomic. The Western sanctions regime, unprecedented in its power and formed in the wake of the events in Ukraine, is clearly changing the system of economic activity in which we have lived for the past decades. The illegal freezing of the Russian Federation's $300 billion in financial reserves has raised fears about the fate of any capital deposited in the West. As a result, it undermines the international position of the U.S. dollar and, most importantly, encourages the transition to the use of national currencies in world trade. Whether this will be the end of the Bretton Woods system, the future will tell. But this tendency is already in place.
I would also like to point out that the Western sanctions, especially the latest "packages," are so legally sweeping and sloppy that they can be extended to virtually anyone. Judge for yourself: most of these sanctions are based on accusing a person of, and I quote, "being a friend of Putin." This brings us to a whole new level of understanding of the Western sanctions regime, where its justification is devoid of any legal argumentation.
Obviously, such an approach will lead to situations that are quite absurd. As in the case of the London's National Gallery, which recently took the liberty of changing the title of a painting by the French Impressionist Degas, which he himself gave to the picture: instead of "Russian dancers," the picture is now called "Ukrainian dancers."
Rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the UK (2011-2019)
Alexander Yakovenko
