Mr. Dmitry Orekhov puts it in a very simple way: in Russian language, and in traditional Russian thinking, that very word, rules, derives from the word “rights”, as in human rights. While in English these are two totally different words.
Rules are what a ruler lays down for everyone, and that’s something that diametrically opposes rights, but still has to be accepted. As a result, here we have something very much like a shaky balance, if not a permanent conflict. Namely, you may have your human rights, but that’s in theory, while in practice you have to obey someone’s rules.
Dmitry Orekhov is, naturally, an Orientalist, albeit not a usual one. He is a culturologist. Graduate of top-class St.
Petersburg University, second only to my Moscow University (or so I hope), he was studying cultures of East Africa and India, if you can imagine that mix. He made his name as an author of all kind of books, novels and philosophic volumes, and not only about the Orient. His recent short essay is titled Rules-Based World Order Is Doomed.
To remind, that order, whatever it is, has become an obligatory mantra for every Western leader, trying to explain the meaning and the ultimate goal of everything the collective West is doing in this world of ours. Some people are very frank about it, saying simply, that the ideal order is not just Western, it has to be American. Meaning that it’s America that lays down rules, while the rest only have to follow.
A typical Russian reaction to tha.