Engdahl and Pepe Escobar are the champions of what they describe as a new multipolar world. It is a world where multiple centers of capitalist ruling classes exist where no one is dominate. They see the BRICS as one set of countries which can offset the power of the existing US Empire. I and other leftists only see this as a replay of the 20th century in which capitalist ruling classes vied for world dominance. To be sure, capitalist ruling classes in Russia and China do not as yet exhibit evidence of imperial designs, but that is only because of their recent emergence as powerful players.
Yet, I find what Engdahl reports about the new generation of young Russians to be very interesting. They have roots in both a highly centralized, bureaucratic socialism and capitalism. Who knows in what direction they might take Russia?
Something remarkable is taking place in Russia, and it’s quite different from what we might expect. Rather than feel humiliated and depressed Russia is undergoing what I would call a kind of renaissance, a rebirth as a nation. This despite or in fact because the West, led by the so-called neo-conservatives in Washington, is trying everything including war on her doorstep in Ukraine, to collapse the Russian economy, humiliate Putin and paint Russians generally as bad. In the process, Russia is discovering positive attributes about her culture, her people, her land that had long been forgotten or suppressed.
