The West is no longer a civilizational model for Russia

The West is no longer a civilizational model for Russia, as it is for most countries of the world, says Professor Ivo Budil (photo) from the University of Prague. For migrants, the European continent is also losing its appeal, Czech edition ‘Parlamentni Listy’ quotes him as saying.

Below are some quotes from his speech.

- Life in the Czech Republic will fundamentally change due to the fact that more than a million refugees from Ukraine who have moved to the Czech Republic will take root in it.

- I think that Europe will become poorer. It will lose its attractiveness for migrants from other countries and regions of the world. There, at their homes, they themselves embarked on the path of economic development, and life will be better. The problem of migration in Europe will disappear. The problem will be poverty.

- French and British societies will change. They will change because of demographics. France will still resemble the Mediterranean region, but more – South region.

- The European Union reminds me of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. It has been around for a long time, and then Napoleon abolished it. I am afraid that the European Union no longer has any real historical perspective. I hope that its disintegration will pass slowly and peacefully. People who want to stay in the European Union now work in the leadership of its structures, so you should not expect determination from them. They will not die for the European Union. None of them will die for the European Union if they can move to their pitchforks in the Bahamas.

- Under Tsar Peter the Great, the West became a civilizational model for Russia. In Russia they imitated us, they wanted to be part of Europe. They were thinking about Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals, or even from the Atlantic to Vladivostok... It was a kind of struggle for a form of modern civilization. What is happening now? This is a deviation from the Western civilizational model. All this, what has been developed in Russia since the time of Peter the Great, and which even Stalin did not refuse, is abolished. The West is no longer a civilizational model for Russia. Russians don't care about it at all. And in Russia they don't care what we think about it. Russia now has several close partners: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India.

- I do not believe that China will colonize Siberia, or that Russia will turn into its raw material appendage. The Chinese gravitate towards a certain ecosystem of the southern seas. He prefers the subtropical regions of the China Sea. It's useless to talk about it – it’s just like to imagine how “Italians colonized Scandinavia”.

- China was terribly traumatized by the period of history that was between the opium wars of the 19th century, which the British instigated to seize control over China, and the Second World War of the 20th century. Chinese civilization has long been convinced that it is the central civilization of the world and China rules it. When in 1793 the ambassador of Great Britain, the main European power, came to Beijing to negotiate a trade agreement, the Emperor said to him: “I will receive you, but not in Beijing – only in a tent outside the city walls, because we accept barbarians in a tent, not in the Palace.”

- BRICS is no longer only those five states that form the core of the organization. BRICS+ is already being formed, and, as far as I know, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Mexico, as well as Argentina want to join it. Thus, a new world is being formed, where everyone will be, except the West.

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