The orientation is to the East. But the West is not forgotten.

In the West today there is a lot of talk about political and economic risks in the implementation of joint energy and infrastructure projects with Russia. However, despite the loud statements of Russia’s opponents, she continues her active pursuits in the foreign market, and her former business contacts are not lost.

Suffice it to recall the Russian gas pipeline to Turkey or the mutual business interests between Russia and China. Characteristically, these two states today are finding more and more new areas of mutual interest. For example, the negotiations on the implementation of joint Russian-Chinese programs in the field of agriculture are currently held. In particular, China asks for taking on lease of Russian land lots to be used as rice plantations.
It may be objected that all of this became possible only after the introduction of Western sanctions against Russia. But wait a moment; if my memory doesn’t fail me, then, for instance, the first Russian-Turkish consultations on gas transportation began in 2010-2011, long before any sanctions set in. At about the same time the cooperation between Russia and Japan in the field of IT -technologies, production of household appliances and robotics began, and it continues to develop up until today. As for the possible risks, there are several potential guarantors, including the multilateral BRICS Development Bank, which is scheduled to open in the nearest future.
Solemnly warning the whole world about the "undesirability and unprofitability of further contacts with totalitarian Russia", the West, however, is not shutting down its production in this state. In Kaluga region the German auto-makers Volkswagen and Volvo, along with the representatives of the French Peugeot-Citroën and the Japanese Mitsubishi continue their operations, albeit with less intensity. Very recently a new plant for production of drugs by German company Berlin-Chemie was opened here.
Equally important international projects are implemented at the federal level. The most ambitious of them is the gas pipeline "Nord Stream" linking Russia and Germany through the Baltic Sea. Its construction involved not only Russia and Germany, but also France and the Netherlands.
On June 18, 2015 the Russian "Gazprom" and several European companies have signed a memorandum on expanding the "Nord Stream" capacity. This will allow Russia to increase the exports of Russian natural gas to Europe up to 512 cubic meters per year by 2030.
It is interesting that despite the protests of Poland and the Baltic states, German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported this project, saying: “As for the Nord Stream pipeline, we intend to continue the construction and implementation of this project”. So, it’s not only about Russia needing Europe, but about Europe needing Russia as well, is it?
It may be so that the words spoken by Frau Merkel, holding a great authority in Europe, later prompted the EU diplomacy chief Federica Mogherini to state that “the EU is ready for working with Russia”. Does that mean that Europe is not particularly afraid to “get in touch with the Russian monster”? Especially when it sees the immediate benefit of such a connection?
It's amazing how many people who write about Russia in reality cannot appreciate this country for what she is, being unable to understand its peculiarities. They are like specialists in bicycles, who having read a hundred books, never ridden one themselves. First of all, Russia is a huge country. I mean, it really is huge. We say that it has got 11 time zones. I mean, those who actually know that Russia has got 11 time zones, they cite this fact. But even they don’t really get what it means in reality. It means that if you work in Kaliningrad and your partner works in Vladivostok, there’s no way you could call them during the office hours. It’s simply because when your working day starts, their working day has long been over. This fact alone would turn any logistical challenge into a nightmare for all Europeans. But for the Russians it’s a piece of cake. They manage. And you know, in 1941, they have managed it so well that they could move more than a thousand enterprises from central Russia to the Urals. Just think about it - they took more than a thousand machine-building enterprises with working machines, documentation archives, employees, tools and measurement devices, etc. and moved them by three thousand kilometers. In just a few months. While the railways were jammed with opposite trains filled with recruits and weapons. Okay, you might say, it was 70 years ago, under Stalin, who ruled the country with an iron hand. But what about the recent construction of facilities for Sochi Olympic Games? Nobody ever believed that it was possible to hold Winter Olympics in the subtropics. But the Russians did it. And this construction was carried out on a gigantic scale, of which the European press kept shamefully silent. Russian people, simply by virtue of the vast landscape of their country, are forced to constantly deal with the problems of such magnitude that the Europeans are not even able to imagine. And if you add to this understanding the facts from the Russian history, the picture will be even more interesting. Take the history of Russia in the last century: the revolution of 1905 happening at the time of Russo-Japanese War, First World War and two revolutions in 1917, of which the second one, taking place in October, has radically changed the political system in the country. Then followed the intensive creation of industry which required enormous efforts. Russian academician Boris Chertok wrote that when they studied the Messerschmitt planes in 1920s they could not understand the purpose of some nodes, but in forty years’ time the same specialist received a state award for participation in the development of Soviet space missiles. Let’s look at Russian history of the XX century: there were two World Wars, the last of which knocked out almost half of all able-bodied men - and after that the country was reconstructed without any Marshall Plan, on her own. It was a grand-scale construction, and Europe has never seen anything like it. In the next few years, Russia went through three waves of production modernization, the latter of which, interrupted by Gorbachev, was supposed to introduce the automated and robot-assisted industrial complexes. There was powerful energy development, including nuclear energetics. There was the creation of the underwater and atomic ice-breaker fleets. Many people know that the Russians stole their nuclear bomb blueprints from the Americans. But how many people know that the Russian built the first nuclear power plant in the world and did it completely on their own? Next perestroika came which resulted in an economy collapse. Once more it had radically changed the political system of the country. The returning of capitalism brought along a huge criminal wave, a real criminal war. This war hit the outskirts of Russia as well. The events in Chechnya had a great impact on all the Russians. This being said, Russia, the main producer of wealth in the USSR, got rid of outlying republics who had acted as her major consumers. Due to this, by 2000, two years after a sovereign default, the Russians began a new powerful industrial construction. It is a pity that our "experts" on Russia cannot read Russian. I would advise them to visit the Russian site "Sdelano u nas" which highlights the industrial and scientific development of modern Russia. It would rid them of many illusions. Some say that the famous Russian military heritage is a bunch of rusty missiles. Did you happen to notice those fifteen Armata tanks that were paraded in the Red Square in May? Or did you think that fifteen tanks are not that much? A post-industrial era humanitarian might think so. But a regular engineer would tell you that even one tank means that there are unique designers who developed this tank, engineers who created the technologies, metal-makers who welded steel and the workers who produced units. It also means that if today we have only 15 tanks, then by tomorrow we might make 15,000 tanks and the day after tomorrow - 150,000. The Russians have done such tricks repeatedly. As for the superiority of the BRICS and the SCO states over Russia, this really sounds like a joke. For instance, during the Soviet era the very same India received from Russia several industrial companies as a gift. They were just a gift. It was a Russian thing to do: to build a chemical or a metal-working enterprise as a pledge of friendship. Furthermore, many experts lead the army, economy and industry in the BRICS and the SCO countries today studied in Russia and from Russia. They learnt the Russian way of doing things. So what kind of superiority are we talking about? Is it evaluated in the amount of dollars? Come on, dollars are an illusion. Only people and resources, including industrial might, are real. Real are the technologies and working experience. Real are the knowledge and skills. And dollars are only paper, a symbol, a fake.
Those Europeans who don’t know the real Russia and don’t understand her, tend to treat her lightly. The history shows that every time the Russians severely punished those who fell into a similar arrogance. They’d better not repeat this mistake - it’ll cost them dearly.