ST. PETERSBURG, May 12. /TASS/. The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has described as a fatal mistake a situation where the international collective security architecture lacks a mechanism of protection against attempts to usurp the entire system.
"One has to admit that the victorious countries, including our own, made a fatal mistake: they failed to equip the architecture of postwar collective security institutions with mechanisms of protection against attempts by one or more states to usurp the entire system in their interests," Medvedev told the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum (SPILF) on Friday.
He recalled that "the institutions of global security that emerged in the postwar years cost humanity a great deal of suffering to create."
"The countries of the world were ready to delegate to supranational bodies some of their innate state powers, that is, in fact, to give away a share of their state sovereignty. Various intergovernmental organizations and transnational arbitral and judicial institutions were actively built and developed. This seemed to be the greatest achievement of the new times. But further events unfortunately took a different turn," Medvedev said.
He stressed that after the Soviet Union disappeared from the historical scene, the balance of power in world politics was radically shifted and some major countries, especially the United States and other NATO countries, began to perceive this as their personal victory, as well as a victory of the doctrine that served their national interests. It was then, he said, that they began to talk about the end of history and a final triumph of liberal ideology, which ostensibly heralds the end point of humanity's sociocultural evolution.
Medvedev described the lack of a protective mechanism as "a result of the general euphoria that arose after the victory over Nazi Germany."
"Those who created the UN and other international institutions were inspired by the victory achieved. They were promoting the ideas of the non-use of force, decolonization and respect for inalienable human rights. Those were absolutely good ideas, but these principles began to be perceived as a perennial axiom that needs no support or protection. The reality turned out to be much more cynical and cruel. This happened gradually," he said.
Medvedev stressed that the so-called historical West or the "golden billion" was trying to impose a world order from the position of strength and dominance.
"Our task today is to restore international relations to their original shape, to the principles of equality and cooperation, and not diktat and domination, and to enforce respect for law and its letter and spirit, including the spirit and letter of the UN Charter and the fundamental principles of international law stemming from it," Medvedev said.