An international forum “Russia and Europe: mosaic pieces that do not fit” opened in the main building of VSU. The forum, which was organised by Voronezh State University and the Association for European Studies, was devoted to the problem of a dialogue between Russia and European countries, in particular, in the area of geopolitics, media communications, culture, law, and ecology.
On 25 May, a plenary session of the forum was held in the conference hall of the main building, which was opened by the Rector of VSU Dmitry Endovitsky:
“We have withstood difficult years of the pandemic when we had to suspend our meetings. Today, we deal with a different reality, a different geopolitical situation, and we have gathered here to understand how to continue in these realities. The opinions of our expert community on further relations between Russia and Europe will help us. Academic cooperation has never been more important than it is today,” said the rector.
Alexey Gromyko, Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of the Association for European Studies, gave a presentation with his own vision of the situation. He discussed the current attitudes, expectations, and fears of Europeans and the nature of European cultural values.
The report of Professor Alexander Soloviov, DSc in Political Sciences, Head of the Department of Political Analysis at the Faculty of Public Administration of Moscow State University, “Cultural Universals in the Space of Ideological Interventions” was devoted to two foundations of global human activities: culture and politics. According to Alexander Soloviov, culture a priori is an experimental platform and an open tolerant system, which, however, will change its boundaries in the future, while politics is boundless as related to the development of society and the world. However, today is marked by a historical revolution in politics, which is now uncontrollable.
“The obsession with reorganisation turns politics into a space of bare face lies, which expands using propaganda mechanisms,” said Alexander Soloviov.
Professor Vitaly Tretyakov, DSc in Philology, Dean of the Higher School of Television at Moscow State University, who gave a public lecture at VSU on 24 May, gave a report “National interests and tasks of journalism in modern conditions”. Vitaly Tretyakov's forecast for the development of a dialogue between Russia and Europe was less optimistic than the views of previous speakers: according to the Dean of the Higher School of Television, we should soon expect a break-up of the European Union. Vitaly Tretyakov drew parallels between the European and Soviet Union, calling the USSR the first European Union.
Professor Dmitry Danilov, PhD in Economics, Head of the Department of European Security at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, devoted his report to the concept of European security. The main idea of the report was to try and find an answer to the question whether European security is a new global norm.
Professor Paolo Bargiacchi from the Kore University of Enna (Enna, Italy) talked about the European strategy and collective security. Within this framework, according to the professor from Italy, the actions of Europe should be considered not in terms of collective security, but in terms of collective responsibility and the professor believes that all countries should be involved in these actions. Responsibility for global security is the responsibility of each country.
