Valdai Club

On February 24, the attitude of the Western public towards Russians changed overnight. Exactly at once. One can talk about this in terms of the dialectical transition of quantity into quality, one can even name its exact time if you wish.

Belief in diplomacy as such and in its “vaccine spin-off” in particular instils optimism in an ordinary man. A mantra arises: we will create vaccines all together — we will be vaccinated — we will defeat the pandemic. But in fact, large-scale international cooperation in the development of vaccine materials fails to transpire. Contrary to the declared unification of efforts of people of good will, we see simple geopolitical nationalism, writes Roman Reinhardt, Associate Professor at the Department for Diplomatic Studies, Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

The only positive outcome of the coronavirus pandemic was the rapid self-cleansing of the environment. Emissions from factories ceased as they were shut down and there was lighter traffi c, resulting in better air quality. This has been corroborated by satellite images and meteorological monitoring data in many countries. Then, river water got cleaner.


The first thing of note is a higher level of international and interstate contacts. Critical decisions in the area of global politics or economics are increasingly often taken by national leaders at their meetings, rather than in the wake of protracted talks between foreign ministry delegations.