Russia

Residents of cities, immersed in the hustle and bustle of the city, thinking about the rest, most often imagine some uninhabited sunny and sandy beach with palm trees. And the sea itself is associated with a state of serenity, joy, and peace. However, this is only one of its visions.

Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil

Strategic partnership with Russia

Russia and Brazil have just celebrated the 185th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations. Mutually profitable strategic partnership has been built on a firm basis within the years becoming even more dynamic lately.

It's hard to imagine the 21st century without millions of vehicles, any kind you can think of. Dozens of design companies, hundreds plants throughout the world are working night and day to make transportation for a modern man as comfortable, safe, and fast as it can get. Ask anyone, and they will be ready to name the most famous automotive concerns and the latest luxury models of "iron horses". However, not many really know where is the initial "incubator" for the professionals able to make their dreams come true - at first as a design drawing, and then as a powerful machine.

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba, the primary mission of which was to train skilled professionals with higher education for developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Arab East, was established February 5, 1960. The University still keeps to this purpose, along with training professionals for autonomous areas and regions of Russia. In 1992, the University was renamed as the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

Ukraine became the centre of world attention in the end of November 2013. One step away from signing of the Association agreement between Ukraine and EU, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has announced the suspension of the European integration of the country.

This was the starting point in the mass protest action on the independence square that led to the change of government. Widespread protest of thousands, now known all around the world as the «euromaidan», in December changed the tone and switched to a demand for the resignation of the government and the President.

Today, Helicopter engineering is one of the leading and most stable sectors of the Russian economy. This high-tech and knowledge-intensive industry maintained its competitiveness both in difficult post-Soviet times and during the global financial crisis.

In a number of my articles I have explained that the Soviet Union served as a constraint on US power. The Soviet collapse unleashed the neoconservative drive for US world hegemony. Russia under Putin, China, and Iran are the only constraints on the neoconservative agenda.

The Russian National Committee for BRICS Studies will draft a new strategy for emerging world powers.

Out of all Russian foreign policy think tanks that focus on a variety of international issues, there is one that deals with a single but very acute topic. The National Committee on BRICS Studies was founded in 2011 and has since then been dealing exclusively with the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa economic and political alliance.

Active expansion of Russian ties with Latin America has generated a need for an annual international forum, which will make it possible to share experience and technologies, and strengthen investment cooperation. The first experience was the conference "Russia - Latin America. Ways of Development and Strengthening of Trade and Economic Relations" in Moscow organized by the International Investment Cooperation Fund.

Revision of the World Political and Economic Order Is Necessary – Roberto Unger

Prominent Brazilian politician, scientist and philosopher Dr. Roberto Mangabeira Unger answered the questions of VIGIL

VIGIL: Dr. Unger, what is your view of the perspectives of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and the Republic of South Africa). What can be done by these countries to overcome the negative consequences of the world political-economic crisis?