MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. Russia's efforts to promote Eurasian security face increasing opposition from the United States, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.

He made the statement at a roundtable discussion at TASS, which is part of preparations for ceremony to award of the first Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize.

"We will certainly build up practical cooperation in Eurasia. It now is in this huge, major super-region that several independent centers of the multipolar world are being formed and strengthened, and successful integration projects are being implemented. President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin's initiative to form the Greater Eurasian Partnership is aimed at synchronizing interaction between them," he said. "Russia also proposed to form a Eurasian architecture of equal indivisible security and equitable cooperation. Of course, it is obvious to everyone that these efforts face growing opposition from the United States and its allies, with their aggressive desire to maintain their dominance in world processes. The desire of Westerners to solve their problems at the expense of other countries explains the policy to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia."

According to Ryabkov, the trend toward multipolarity cannot be reversed.

"It is interesting that Leo Tolstoy thought in a similar fashion. He thought - and this can be confirmed in his texts - the historical process is objective, nonlinear and irreversible, and it cannot be stopped at a point that someone might favor. It is made up of the aspirations of millions of people. It is driven - and this is a quote - by a force equal to the entire movement of peoples," the official said.

Ryabkov said the drastic changes that are now in progress will require a comprehensive analysis and a frank depoliticized exchange of views.

"And we all, we are sure, face an important task: to engage the potential of diplomacy in a more effective way, with the intellectual contribution from academic and political science circles and the public - all that being in the interests of promoting the establishment of a multipolar world order," he said.

About the award

Members of the Russian Historical Society, the Russian Military Historical Society and the Russian Peace Foundation established the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize Foundation in 2022. The first ceremony of awarding the laureates of the prize will take place on September 9, 2024 in the Bolshoi Theater.

Previously, there was a practice of awarding peace prizes in Moscow. For example, in 1956, instead of the Stalin Prize (that had been awarded since 1949), the International Lenin Prize For Strengthening Peace Between Peoples was established. It was regarded as an answer to the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1989 it was renamed the International Lenin Peace Prize. It was last awarded in 1990 to the leader of the military wing of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela.