Brian McDonald is an Irish citizen who has been living in Russia for many years, has family there, speaks Russian and used to work for RT. – Natylie
By Brian McDonald, Twitter, 1/5/25
FWIW, I believe Russia will eventually become part of the West. The BRICS and ‘global south’ messaging is top-down; on the ground, nobody talks about it. Russians remain fascinated by Western culture and politics.
Most Russians are far warier of Central Asia and China than the ‘evil West.’ They’d still pick a German car over a Chinese one any day.
When the current psychosis fades, normal ties with the US and EU will likely bring relief. Russia has wanted to be part of that world since 1991. And let’s face it, Western Europe needs Russia economically. Just look at Germany — it’s struggling.
The next generation — on both sides — has no Cold War baggage holding them back. Deep down, the West and Russia are urban, industrial civilizations with shared Christian roots. More alike than different.
The world is undergoing an epochal change and in the end Russia won’t have to decide which way to go at all. There will be no need. Several centuries of western (mainly Anglo-American) dominance is coming to an end, thank god. New poles of power are rising everywhere: in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America. As one of the drivers behind BRICS, it’s clear that the Russians are embracing this new world order. Maybe the Americans will come to embrace multipolarity someday, but I doubt it. Not without a lot of pain, anyway.
An interesting point of view but evidence free. I’d choose a German car over an American one but I wouldn’t live in Scholzland..
The long standing phenomenon of a pro-West inclination among professionals and business people doubtless still exists but has to be balanced against many other forces on public opinion.
Whether Mr. McDonald is correctly interpreting the zeitgeist of the Russian street is immaterial. The problem rests in the russophobia of the West, the neocon culture to dominate, and the blind dogma of neoliberal economics which leads to policies of corporate exploitation and extraction with regards to Russia, not cooperation. The Western ruling class will not accept Russians as equals, and will use racist tropes and fear mongering to distract the Western public from its own internal decline and growing wealth inequality by ginning up endless wars. The deep historical roots of the schism between East and West is all about Western attempts to rule – and the inability of the Western hierarchical thinking to accept the East as equals. Mr. McDonald might want to read Guy Mettan’s “Creating Russolphobia” to get a handle on this racist mindset in the ruling class that goes back over 1000 years, with its current reincarnation in Western neocon dogma.
I would push back on the “evidence free” assertion. Living in different parts of Russia for many years, working in a major institution there, speaking the language and having family for years there gives McDonald a lot more on the ground knowledge than any of us have. I’ve seen no substantive polling to contradict his main point about how Russians in general feel about the west versus China/BRICS
I’ve not been back to Russia since 2017 but my conversations with Russians when I was there is consistent with his point. Russians relate culturally to the west and not to China or India or the global south. The extent to be which Russia will have a relationship with China and BRICS will be more transactional for geopolitical and economic benefit.
I think some of us in the west who oppose US empire can sometimes overestimate these trends or oversimplify then and see what we want to see.
Masochism seems to be a trait there.