Russians Foment Multipolarism

The Russians like the idea of multipolarism, in which Islamist dictatoriships would ally with other countries of questionable motivation -- Russia, China, Venezuela -- in a nasty alliance against truth, justice and the American way. They like the idea so much, they're working aggressively to plant multipolar seeds in the Islamic mind. Moscow News reports:

Officials and religious figures from Russia and more than a dozen Islamic countries gathered in the Volga city of Kazan [right] in central Russia to attend a conference that organizers said was aimed at deepening their dialogue and defending a “multipolar” world in the face of U.S. power, the AFP news agency reports.

“Values cannot be imposed by force,” Mintimer Shaimiyev, president of Russia’s mainly Muslim republic of Tatarstan where the three-day conference was being held, said in an opening address to delegates. “The example of Iraq has shown that democracy can only be the result of internal development. Liberal values can’t be exported like cars. A multipolar world without a system of equilibrium leads to tensions and civil war,” Shaimiyev said.

Representatives of more than a dozen Islamic countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, converged on Kazan for discussions led by former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, a veteran diplomat and respected Middle East expert.

About 16% of Russia's population in Muslim and they've had their share of Islamist problems, so it makes perfect sense for Russia to try to turn Islamist angst towards us and away from them.

Hey, here's an idea. If they're so hot on picking up more responsibility for running the world, let's move the UN to Kazan in good ol' Tartarstan. If nothing else, it would reduce the number of career UN bureaucrats enjoying the good life in New York, the heart of the big, big pole that really matters in the multipolar scheme.

Related Tags: Multipolar, Multipolarism, Islam, Russia, Tartarstan