The war between Russia and Ukraine has become a turning point in world politics, and Moscow and Beijing represent the main global threat. This is stated in the annual report for the Munich Security Conference. It will run from 17 to 19 February.
The document is titled Re: vision. Its key part is the Munich Safety Index. The authors of the report, in preparation, interviewed a thousand residents from the G7 countries, BRICS (Brazil, China, India, South Africa) and Ukraine. Respondents were asked to rate 32 risk categories on a scale of zero to ten, including the energy crisis and direct threats from Russia, North Korea, China, the United States, Iran and the European Union.
The authors call the sample exceptional, because instead of Russia, they decided to include Ukraine in it.
Russia was considered the biggest source of risk by representatives of six countries – Ukraine, Germany, Japan, France, Canada and the United States. In the BRICS countries, the energy and food crises were called the biggest danger. China is most afraid of the coronavirus pandemic, possible new epidemics and the use of nuclear weapons by the aggressor.
The researchers also assessed which states among the respondents are perceived as allies, and which as sources of threats. Ukraine ranked first as an ally with an index of +22. It is followed by Poland, Estonia, the USA and the UK. China and Russia received ratings of -6 and -20, respectively, and took the last two places in the list of 21 countries.
A separate section of the report refers to a survey of Ukrainians. 63% of the polled citizens of Ukraine would like to live in the world according to the rules that apply in Europe, and 22% – according to the rules of the United States.
The report notes that after the Russian attack on Ukraine, the world was divided into democracies and autocracies. Thus, some countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia did not criticize the Russian war against Ukraine.
The authors of the document also mention China. He, in their opinion, creates his own sphere of influence in East Asia. Like Russia, China is accused of revisionism, but they consider it a more serious challenge than Moscow.
- The Munich Security Conference has been held since 1962. It is attended by heads of state, government, ministers, politicians and public figures from dozens of countries. Russia has participated in the conference since 1999.
- In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the Munich Conference. In his speech, he sharply criticized the United States and its allies for “an attempt to establish a unipolar world” for the expansion of NATO, which, in his words, poses a threat to Russia. This speech is considered one of the starting points from which the deterioration of Russia’s relations with Western countries began.
- In 2022, the Russian authorities refused to participate in the forum for the first time in more than 20 years. According to them, “in recent years, the conference has been increasingly transformed into a transatlantic forum, losing its inclusiveness and objectivity.”
- In 2023, representatives of the Russian government were not invited to the event. Instead, representatives of the opposition, in particular Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Garry Kasparov, were invited to the event. The Russian Foreign Ministry responded by saying that Moscow had lost interest in the event.
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