The Twilight of an Empire

Original by Venyamin Rodnyanskiy published by izvestia.ru; translated from Russian by J.Hawk

The Russian Federation, which is being universally accused of unwillingness to cooperate with the “progressive world community” in the fight against international terror, recently attempted to send its delegation to the US. Which was to be headed not by the Minister of Foreign Affairs but by the head of government–the second most important individual in the country. Delegation which was supposed to discuss the matters of cooperation and unity of effort in our shared sacred task…

The US, which is the main headquarters for the fight against international terrorism and which is stubbornly accusing Russia of unwillingness to cooperate with the “progressive world community” in the fight against international terror, refused to host the Russian delegation. Just as it refused to send its own to Moscow.

In this simple way, Vladimir Putin destroyed the free world’s plans to finish off terrorism once and for all.

This was preceded by an entertaining exchange of opinions. The US accused Russia of bombing “moderate terrorists.” Russia replied that it can’t distinguish between “moderate terrorists” and ordinary terrorists. But if the US were ready to share its information on Syria and indicate the proper IS targets, then Russia would be happy to assist our dear partners. But the partners for some reason opted not to share their information.

Which means Russia once again tripped up the entire process by which the world was uniting against international terrorism.

On a more serious side, the current international situation only provokes a sad smile. One can’t even make jokes anymore when listening to yet another State Department spokesmodel. The great empire. which only recently was awarded the title of global hegemon by the fates and which was recognized as the sole superpower, is crashing before our very eyes.

The recent years’ geopolitical confrontation with Russia of recent years has given the Americans a brilliant Russian operation in Syria, a Kalibr cruise missile volley (which changes the entire geopolitical balance of power), and a mighty Russian base in the Middle East.

And what do we see in response?

Yesterday’s superpower is utterly powerless to somehow counter its unexpectedly resurrected old competitor. “You are bombing the wrong terrorists, but we won’t give you the proper coordinates!” “You don’t want to cooperate with the international community therefore we won’t host your delegation which wants to discuss cooperation!”

Absolute power and unchallenged leadership played a trick on the US–they lost all semblance of effectiveness. Having found themselves in 1991 without the USSR, the growth of America’s power obscured the fact its state structures degraded. There was nothing to fear, after all,  every enemy has been defeated.

It was a quarter of a century of rapid degradation, during which falsehood and hypocrisy became the dominant law of international relations. When lies were elevated to the level of absolute principles. When they didn’t pay attention to dissenters, instead wiping their feet on decency and common sense while deciding the fates of entire continents.

The US has spent a year against the IS within the framework of the “international coalition” they created. Thousands of sorties and airstrikes. And the result? Honestly, I can’t even think of a single video from these strikes. But as soon as Russia entered the fray, the internet has been bulging at the seams with all manner of video recordings showing concrete effects of our operations.

Moscow’s main asset today is not its modernized military, not our precise and considered foreign policy, not Putin’s colossal rating either inside or outside the country. Our main asset are the United States which are doing our work for us by discrediting themselves.

Simply nobody believes them anymore. Or trusts them. It meant nothing earlier and had no consequences–10 years ago everyone realized that Washington doesn’t care about democracy but rather about its own interests, but 10 years ago there was no alternative.

But now it’s all different. Now, on the one hand, the planet is seeing a totally dishonest power which nobody even wants to listen to–everyone is sick of the demagoguery, paid for by revolutions and wars in foreign countries. And on the other hand everyone is observing Russia which might still be a mystery, but which at least is not waving vials of fake anthrax at the UN.

We don’t have to make any grand efforts in this geopolitical clash. It’s enough to be who we are. The Americans will do everything for us.