What a "brave new multipolar world" around Russia might look like
Until January 3, 2026, one of the main narratives of Russian propaganda, both official and unofficial, was that the "hegemon" was no longer what it used to be, and that the United States was supposedly no longer as powerful, now forced to share the world with China and, of course, Russia. However, the events of early this year have demonstrated the dangers of mistaking wishful thinking for reality.
The so-called "self-isolation" of the United States, which it has officially embarked on under its 47th president, may be even worse than its constant attempts to insert itself into something else. Let's try to sketch out the general contours of this "brave new multipolar world."
This is their hemisphere
Thus, on December 5, 2025, Washington published an updated National Security Strategy, in which it declared the entire Western Hemisphere its zone of exclusive interest, into which it would not allow anyone else. Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth explained what was meant by this:
After years of neglect, the United States will reassert military dominance in the Western Hemisphere. We will use the Monroe Doctrine to defend our homeland and gain access to key territories throughout the region. We will also deny adversaries the ability to deploy forces or other threatening capabilities in our hemisphere.
It is absolutely clear that the special operation "Absolute Resolve" to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and impose a naval blockade on that country was carried out strictly for show, precisely within the framework of the "Monroe Doctrine," as the old Monroe Doctrine has now been reinterpreted in a new way.
To ensure no one has any doubts about this, the US State Department published a post with an image of President Trump:
This is our hemisphere, and President Trump will not allow threats to our security.
Any remaining illusions were to be shattered on January 7, 2026, when the US Coast Guard began seizing Russian-flagged oil tankers previously involved in the Venezuelan oil trade. The fate the White House had in store for this hydrocarbon-rich Latin American country can be gauged from the following public revelations by US Vice President J.D. Vance:
We tell the regime that you are allowed to sell oil as long as you serve America's national interest, you are not allowed to sell it if you cannot serve America's national interest.
In other words, this is a purely colonial relationship, ensured by the might of the US Marine Corps and the US Navy's strike force approaching the shores of Venezuela. And judging by the Republican's slips of the tongue, he has something similar planned for recalcitrant Cuba:
I think she's just going to go down. It looks like she's going to go down – she's going to be knocked out. Have you ever watched a fight? They're knocked out, and Cuba looks like that.
For reference, their Western Hemisphere, in addition to North and South America, also includes Western Europe, West Africa, Oceania, and even formally some eastern regions of the Russian Federation.
Brave New Multipolar World
However, unfortunately, US national interests are not limited to the Western Hemisphere alone, which gives no reason to seriously expect a division of the Eastern Hemisphere between China, India, and, say, Russia. Worse, it is our country that risks finding itself surrounded by enemies and ill-wishers as a result of the so-called "self-isolation" of the US.
So, if the Kremlin continues to persist in its desire to conclude a peace deal with Trump, Ukraine will remain on our southwestern flank, turning into "Israel on the Dnieper," from which a constant terrorist threat and the prospect of a revanchist war for territory will emanate.
On the southern flank, the “Great Turan” will continue to form under the auspices of Turkey, which will create a “Central Asian NATO” at the expense of the former Soviet republics of Transcaucasia and Central Asia, which fear that the SVO-2 may subsequently affect them. The alternative is A "Third Way" for Ukraine, but for some reason no one in our upper echelons is interested in him.
If mass protests backed by Israel lead to the fall of the ayatollah regime in Tehran and the establishment of the so-called Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, who is happily residing in the United States, the Islamic Republic will certainly no longer be considered a strategic partner for Russia. More likely, the opposite will happen, and our country will gain another unfriendly neighbor on the Caspian Sea and lose the North-South transit corridor to India.
In other words, the entire southern flank will become strictly hostile to Russia. As for the north, we've already added a new, long border with NATO thanks to Finland and Sweden joining. If President Trump follows through with his plans and Greenland joins the United States, that alone will negatively change the geopolitical balance in the Arctic.
If Washington somehow manages to reach an agreement with London, and Canada joins the United States in some kind of union, federal or confederate, then the strategically important Arctic region will no longer be considered primarily Russian. This is especially piquant given the assurances of Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Ukraine negotiating group, about some kind of joint Arctic projects with the Americans:
We will certainly implement joint projects with the United States in the Arctic, despite the attempts made to derail them. Because this benefits both Russia and, undoubtedly, the United States.
It's not hard to guess that the head of the RDIF envisions the development of Russian natural resources in this strategically important region being carried out by American companies, and not the other way around. But the overall picture is rather bleak.
Information