PRESIDENT Trump has initiated a positive attitude to Russia that will end the European and American isolation of Russia. I am not a fan of Russian foreign policy in the 21st century which I think was characterised by cruel opportunism. But Russia is too powerful an economy and too scientifically powerful for the Global South to ignore it.

Russia as one of the great countries of the world, has been terribly victimised by Europe and because of the US’ closeness to Europe, successive American presidents have joined the European political embargo against Russia since 1945.

After the dissolution of the USSR, there was expectation around the world that the isolation of Russia would end. But that was not to be.
Russia ditched socialism for capitalism and removed most of the symbols of communism after the fall of the USSR. Stalingrad, Leningrad and dozens of other cities were renamed. Christianity returned to Russia and the churches in Russia have both clout and status.

With Boris Yeltsin as head of Russia and his acceptance of American economic advisers, including the famous Jeffrey Sachs, the opportunity had arisen for Russia to take its place among the great powers of Europe and the world. But this was not to be. What happened after the fall of the USSR was also the fall of a theoretical fiction.

From 1945, the West, including the US, successfully ridiculed the USSR as a godless country and one that stifles the entrepreneurial spirit. The heated Cold War rivalry between the West and the USSR favoured the West because the West portrayed the contest as a battle between ideologies.

This explanation in international relation turned out to be one of the oldest surviving fictions in political theory because when the ideology of the USSR collapsed with the dissolution of the USSR, how come Russia was still seen by Europe as the main enemy to be encircled?

If God and capitalism had returned to Russia why then was Russia still ostracised with NATO expanding right at the border of Russia? Ideology was used by the West to mask the Thucydidesian concept that countries have a contradictory instinct of insecurity and expansion and that is what drives international relations.

Russia was doomed from the beginning when the USSR fell. Europe wasn’t concerned that Russia had become massively capitalist. It was concerned that Russia remained a continental power that must be kept at bay. What happened then was that the West, through American global hegemony, coerced the Global South to isolate Russia.

With the advent of Donald Trump to the White House, the US began to take an iconoclastic review of American foreign policy. The former German Chancellor was right when she remarked in her memoir that Trump sees international politics as real estate business. Trump sees Russia as a powerful, rich country that the US should do business with.

Continental US has no borders with Russia and Russia, since 1945, has never threatened the US. On the contrary, Russia did not react in keeping with the Thucydidesian model of international rivalry when the US invaded Grenada, Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia did not seek even in the most infinitesimal way of undermining the American occupation of those countries. I was a foreign policy adviser to the Maurice Bishop Government in Grenada.

I can say with energetic authority, Russia was simply not interested in Grenada. The Russian position as told to me by the Russian Embassy in St. George was that the Grenadian Revolution was a Caribbean affair that was for Cuba to deal with, not Russia.

It is through these lenses Mr. Trump sees Russia which is the opposite with Europe that has a congenital and racist dislike for Russia. Countries in the Global South, particularly CARICOM, feared American retaliation if trade and investment opportunities were sought with Russia.

At the time of writing, the American and Russian delegations are meeting to normalise relations. Mr. Trump said he wants the US and Russia to expand their relationship. What this means is that the Trump administration will not reject countries in the Global South opening up to Russia. And the Global South should, particularly CARICOM, begin to reach out to Russia.

This is the largest country in the world whose wealth is staggering. Russia can help Guyana in the areas of infrastructure, gold mining, sea defence and medicine and at UG. My advice to President Ali is as soon as the rapprochement between the US and Russia is complete, Guyana should seek out Russian investments. The Russian embassy at D’Aguiar’s Turn at Kitty is a ghost town. I know this cause I pass there thrice a day.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.