“Do not be afraid of side effects”: Political scientist Fyodor Lukyanov gave a lecture at KBSU on the observed situations in the world

Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H. M. Berbekov hosted a lecture on international politics by Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Research Professor at the Higher School of Economics, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs. The purpose of the meeting with students, according to the political scientist, is to explain to the audience the prerequisites for the current geopolitical situation and how to develop further in a crisis situation that, unfortunately, will only get worse.

«Today there is an irreversible value shift, i.e. what our young fellow citizens are accustomed to will change. First, the proportions of what is important and unimportant will change. Secondly, it will be difficult, and thirdly, there is no need to be afraid of this, because “this too will pass”, and most importantly, the difficulties of our time are challenges that open up new opportunities for us,” — said Fedor Lukyanov.

As part of the lecture, much attention was paid to the issue of Russia’s interaction with Turkey, which in various ways influences, among other things, the regions of the North Caucasus; with China as an absolutely uncontested Russian partner at the moment. It was also about Russia’s relations with the United States. And of course, the lecturer was asked the main question that probably worries every ordinary Russian:

“When will the conflict with Ukraine end and how far can it go?»

In response, Fyodor Lukyanov said: «Unfortunately, the answer to this question so far is:“We don’t know.” Of course, after 7 months it is clear that initially we underestimated the scale of what was happening and the level of involvement of third parties in the conflict. Those plans that were, turned out to be unrealizable. The question has long gone beyond the scope of a purely Ukrainian topic, and this, of course, greatly changes the alignment. If the conflict was simply between Russia and Ukraine, then, sooner or later, most likely, they would have agreed. But this is a conflict between Russia and the West, where the West is fighting with Ukrainian hands, so it is difficult to make predictions. One thing, in my opinion, is obvious — there is a clear activation of the nuclear issue. This is a kind of culmination of the escalation of the conflict, the last arguments of political pressure. Further, either God forbid a precedent happens, or, which is still more likely, it will somehow sober everyone up, make them say: okay, let’s think about how to resolve the issue. I hope that something will turn in their heads. It is extremely symbolic that the apotheosis of this crisis, apparently, will approximately coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Caribbean crisis in 1962, when nuclear war was avoided. Let’s hope that reason prevails now».