Despite Kherson failure, Russia insists on its new world order - analysis

Russia withdrew from the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday after gaining control following the invasion of Ukraine.

 An armoured truck of pro-Russian troops is parked near Ukraine's former regional council's building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Russia-controlled city of Kherson, Ukraine July 25, 2022 (photo credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
An armoured truck of pro-Russian troops is parked near Ukraine's former regional council's building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Russia-controlled city of Kherson, Ukraine July 25, 2022
(photo credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Russia has suffered a serious setback in having to abandon Kherson, a city that it had occupied during its war on Ukraine this year. However, Moscow wants the world to know that it is not down for the count.

“Today, Russia is building an equal world order for the future and is fighting alone against the West, while protecting its citizens and returning its lands, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday,” Moscow’s state media TASS news reported 

Moscow’s leadership, particularly Vladimir Putin, has often said that Russia is leading a new world order. This is designed to supplant the West. This is not just an attempt to create a multi-polar world, in place of a US-led world order but a desire by Russia to work with other authoritarian regimes to have a whole new world. This world would be based around authoritarian leaders and countries like Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and other states in Central Asia.

Russia attends forums to push its agenda

Russia has attended important forums of the SCO and CICA this year to push this agenda. It is an agenda that China has also hinted at and Iran’s leaders have expressed agreement with. For that reason, it’s worth noting that even as Russia has lost out in Kherson, it continues to talk up this new world order. The use of terms like this is clearly designed to contrast with the US-led world order and “new world order” that George H.W Bush mentioned in 1991.

  

 A local resident hugs Ukrainian serviceman as people celebrate after Russia's retreat from Kherson, in central Kherson, Ukraine November 12, 2022 (credit:  REUTERS/Lesko Kromplitz)
A local resident hugs Ukrainian serviceman as people celebrate after Russia's retreat from Kherson, in central Kherson, Ukraine November 12, 2022 (credit: REUTERS/Lesko Kromplitz)

"It is Russia, and not the [United] States or Great Britain or the gloomy Kiev, who is building a future world order," and "such an equal world order will be built," Medvedev said this weekend.

"Russia is fighting alone against NATO and the West, so drawing any parallels with the past is either incorrect or conventional."

Dmitry Medvedev

The report at TASS also says Russia has more weapons in its arsenal, an attempt to paint the situation as rosier than it is for Moscow. At the same time, Russian state media has reported that Turkey’s authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has encouraged Putin to attend the G20 in Indonesia. Clearly, Turkey wants to work closely with Russia to push back against the West.