... a situation in which certain Western models will again come to Russia through the East, just as the ideas of Aristotle came to medieval Europe through Arab intellectuals. It will be difficult for Russia to make a choice between the West and the non-West, simply because such a choice is impossible in practice. Rather, Russia will have to engage with a variety of cultures and ways of life.
We may have to listen more than we talk and learn more than teach. What lies ahead is a time of patience, endurance, and sometimes humility, in the face of hardship, without which it will be difficult to survive a new historical ...
... the fierce 20th-century confrontation without firing a single shot.
Yet, today’s Western world is being swept by a pessimism bordering on panic. Just a couple of years... ... that there was another, more effective, development model. However, the experience of Russia and China, which were usually cited as examples of such a model, showed quite... ... global and interconnected but retained the diversity of interests and original political cultures and views. This did not fit the universalistic understanding of “the end...
... Russia has what I would call a fluid identity, partly Eastern, partly Western. This is, in fact, a good and productive trait, despite the fact that it generates endless debates. The country is in a position to take the best from both the East and the West. Obviously, Russian culture of the past three centuries has been leaning towards the West, but its periodic departures from the West are not less productive, as they allow the country to redefine itself anew.
What is the Eastern component of Russia’s identity?
Mikhail ...
