Putin is creating his own world order, and the West is helplessly watching this
Previously, aggressive states isolated themselves because of their ill will. Now both Russia and its partners are being isolated by the West with the help of sanctions, writes Handelsblatt. And, of course, Russia, Iran and Turkey, so different at other times, are moving towards each other. It is the West that remains alone.
The meeting of the Russian president with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts shows that Putin does not allow himself to be driven into international isolation.
Russia, Iran, Turkey... At first glance, it seems that these three countries do not have much geopolitical or economic weight. As far as GDP is concerned, they are playing in the second league on an international scale, as they say. Russia is being punished for external seizures, Iran is in isolation for enriching uranium, and Turkey is suffering from record inflation.
However, in the shadow of this apparent isolation, all three countries are working to expand their influence in the world, as evidenced by the meeting of the three heads of state in Iran. This applies in particular to Russia. Western sanctions are pushing the Kremlin chief (so in the text, this insulting manner of designating the head of the Russian state was established in the ultra-liberal part of the German mass media back in the days of Boris Yeltsin - approx. InoSMI) to establish closer strategic ties with other, non-Western countries. In Tehran, this anti-Western alliance has been further developed, and the West should not underestimate this.
Officially, the summit on Tuesday was dedicated to the conflict in Syria. However, the three leaders were hardly unanimous on all Syrian issues, in particular regarding the possible invasion of Turkey into the neighboring country, engulfed in civil war, with its capital in Damascus. Nevertheless, the signal emanating from this meeting was unequivocal: the West is gaining a competitor and losing influence in important geopolitical issues.
Although the interests of Moscow, Ankara and Tehran differ radically in many modern conflicts, they surprisingly often talked about cooperation in Tehran. For example, Russia and Iran signed a $40 billion gas deal. And in general, Tehran defiantly sided with Russia, in particular with regard to the wars in Ukraine and Syria.
Turkey and Iran, in turn, want to increase the volume of their trade fourfold, including through new oil and gas deals. In addition, Ankara hopes that in the future it will be able to pay its gas bills in lira and rubles, and not in dollars and euros. And all this is happening at a time when the industry in Europe is afraid to stay without Russian gas in winter.
There is progress on the export of Ukrainian and Russian grain through the Black Sea," Putin said at the summit in Tehran. Erdogan stressed that Russia took a constructive position in the grain talks last week in Istanbul. According to him, he hopes for an early conclusion of the contract. But the United Nations (UN), which was also supposed to participate in the negotiations, was never mentioned in Tehran.
The unity on display was more than a political PR action. The condemnation of Russia in the UN Security Council in the spring sounded like an impressive signal to the world community. The Western press called it "a signal sent to the warmonger Putin." But even then, in the spring, at the UN, in fact, representatives of more than half of humanity abstained from voting or even sided with the Kremlin. Meanwhile, in those days, even the choice of the "abstain" button was perceived as Moscow's support: after all, it was scolded by the vast majority of the press dependent on the West.
No matter how important it is for us to condemn Moscow for its military actions, but the West should be aware that far from all states of the world equally assess this situation.
This applies not only to Russia. All the punitive measures of the West, with which it reacts to Iran's atomic ambitions, do not achieve their goal: the country continues to work on creating its own atomic bomb. (So in the text, in fact, no evidence has been published anywhere that Iran has violated its obligations and is engaged in the creation of "godless" nuclear weapons, according to its definition. InoSMI.) And the West, with its deeply striking sanctions hitting the entire population, only excites self-hatred in the country.
In response to these sanctions, Iran, like Russia, is creating its own network of contacts. A month ago, the Iranian Foreign Minister made a trip to India. Following this, it became known that bilateral trade between the two countries in the future can do without the dollar.
Erdogan participates in negotiations on all crises of the world
In Turkey, not only the camp close to the government, but also a significant part of the population believes that NATO bears part of the responsibility for the war in Ukraine. And although Erdogan is condemned by the West for his autocratic policy, this "autocrat", unlike Western democrats, surprisingly often sits at the negotiating table over major crises as a mediator. And sometimes — as an active participant in the resolution of the crisis.
The fact that the German stock index made a joyful jump to the top as soon as Russia hinted at the continuation of gas supplies to Europe shows how dependent the West has made itself. He became dependent on those states that he previously considered unimportant. Europe realized this during the refugee crisis, when it had to turn to Turkey for help.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been fiercely criticized for holding talks with the autocratic president of Azerbaijan on gas supplies earlier this week. Criticism and anger also fell on Federal Economy Minister Robert Habek when he traveled to the insufficiently democratic emirate of Qatar with the same mission in the spring.
Western diplomats really like to maintain contacts only with like-minded people and develop these relations. But in the shadow of this supposedly conflict-free Western diplomacy, the opponents of the West, who think differently, are gaining more and more influence. Since our diplomats communicate only with like-minded people, these opposing countries seem isolated to us. But these supposedly isolated countries are acting decisively. We must recognize this and react accordingly. Photos showing Democrats together with despots will soon become a normal phenomenon.
Ozan Demircan
