Valdai Club

Having fallen far behind China, it will be extremely difficult for the United States and its allies to keep up with it. In most cases, they are allies only on paper, remaining bitter competitors who pursue diametrically opposed commercial interests.

Having worked out the technology and mechanisms for coordinating and promoting sanctions initiatives in the information space over the course of 2022, the G7 plans to introduce a requirement for importers to confirm the non-Russian origin of diamonds appearing on the G7 markets. For a long time, even before the diamond industry was officially subject to sanctions, there was a discussion in European and American circles about how to limit the Russian diamond market without harming their own diamond processing industry.


The act of Valentin Inzko a week before the end of the mandate is, unfortunately, likely to represent a new stage in the modern history of Bosnia and Herzegovina and all the Balkans, writes Valdai Club expert Ekaterina Entina. They are still a “nobody’s land”, but now not because the international community doesn’t care about them, but because in the existing coordinate system, the Balkans are the “cheapest” piece on the common chessboard of international relations in Europe.

In conditions when the international positioning of Serbia is still associated with joining the EU, and de facto rapprochement with both Washington and NATO, it is rather difficult to expect an inflow of systemic Russian investments both in the region and in Serbia itself. This geopolitical uncertainty is reinforced for Russia by the emotional context of our bilateral relations, which, as experts from both sides say, often give rise to overwhelming views and do not allow an objective assessment of each other's interests and capabilities, writes Ekaterina Entina, Deputy Vice Rector, Professor of the School of International Affairs, HSE University; Senior Researcher, Institute of Europe, RAS. The article was prepared specially for the Russian-Serbian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club and Russia House in Belgrade.

Office staff rotation and new people in key posts is a difficult problem for any country, as is illustrated by the developments in the United States and the UK. This year has demonstrated that this is also a problem for established and advanced integration communities like the EU.

The EU proudly portrays itself as a community ruled by law, and follows strict rules in its operations. Every five years, however, it faces the challenge of selecting new leaders. All the new leaders are part of the EU’s political elite. They are mainstream politicians who share the view of the EU’s political establishment in general, not its specific representatives.

The strategic goal of Russia’s policy in the Balkans is preserving positions in its own civilizational area, which has historically included the South Slavic space. The tactical ones include creating a comfortable environment for Russian companies (primarily from the energy sphere) and counterbalancing NATO’s influence in the region. In the long run, the tactical goal could be a full-scale inclusion or even initiating a multilateral solution of the “Balkan issue” by organizing an international conference.

The modern Balkans, while still firmly rooted in the periphery and the past in many ways, are a very dynamic region. Over the last 28 years, the number of states in the region has doubled. In 1991, there were five states in the Balkans: Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania. Today, there are between 7 and 11 countries based on varying estimates. The value of the Balkan Peninsula on the European scale has changed insofar as it is no longer a region entirely consumed by its own problems.

In early May, the European Commission came up with concrete initiatives to bring order to the European Union. If they get approval, Brussels from 2021 will be able to force the member states to implement collectively adopted decisions and strictly adhere to their EU obligations under the threat of the EU funding reduction.