Many across the world are wondering about the future of the Russian economy in light of the preplanned unprecedented sanctions that were just imposed upon it by the US-led West under the pretext of responding to its ongoing special military operation in Ukraine. President Putin elaborated on his civilization-state’s quest for economic sovereignty during his very detailed “Meeting On Socioeconomic Support For Regions” that was just held on Wednesday and which should be read in full by all who are interested in learning more about what he has in mind. Nevertheless, no one should interpret this goal to be akin to isolationism as clarified by VEB.RF state development corporation head Igor Shuvalov in his exclusive interview with RT.

He importantly said that “We need to produce goods that ensure our intellectual, technological, production and food security. But the Russian economy must be absolutely integrated into international trade and open economic ties. We must provide our wealth for the development of global civilization, while also using the best technologies from other countries for the benefit of our own people.” This is absolutely true and deserves to be further elaborated upon in case the reader might have been influenced by the US-led West’s unprecedented anti-Russian information warfare campaign into falsely thinking that Russia is trying to cut itself off from the world. It isn’t, at all. In fact, the opposite is true: Russia is eager to integrate itself with the entire Global South, especially across Eurasia.

Its Greater Eurasian Partnership (GEP) constitutes its official grand strategy, which refers to its comprehensive efforts to bring together the supercontinent through multiple means such as the removal of trade barriers, new connectivity corridors like the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) with Iran and India as well as Pakistan’s PAKAFUZ railway to Moscow’s Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) partners, and the creation of non-Western alternative platforms and systems in the financial, insurance, logistics, and other realms. Simply put, Russia hopes that the complex conditions that were recently imposed upon it will actually accelerate its grand strategic reorientation towards the Global South, which will in turn strengthen the emerging Multipolar World Order that’s being built with its partners.

Put another way, not only is it impossible to “isolate” Russia as history itself attests in multiple instances across the centuries, but the Eurasian Great Power is an irreplaceable engine of the non-Western efforts to pioneer platforms and systems for liberating the Global South from the neo-imperialist shackles placed upon them by the US-led West. Together with China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and many others – importantly including its African and Latin American partners – Russia will help the international community ensure its sovereignty as enshrined in the UN Charter. It’ll take time, but the trajectory is already discernable and arguably irreversible. While the West might have hamstrung Russia’s macroeconomic prospects for the moment, it counterproductively just accelerated its own demise.