The second Trump administration’s surge of interventionism has sent shockwaves across the globe.To Moscow, watching from the sidelines, this is long-awaited confirmation that the era of multilateralism has ended, replaced by the unapologetic return of Great Power politics.

Violations of sovereignty like the invasion of Ukraine are no longer treated as international pariah acts; they are being normalized as the standard currency of 21st-century statecraft. 

Four years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was condemned by the West, the United States has adopted very similar language to Moscow. U.S. Secretary of State Rubio defended the need for preventive strikes to avoid further damage from Iran’s retaliation against Israel, while Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared that the U.S. did not start this war but was seeking to end it. Today, calls for uprisings against "illegitimate” regimes — whether "Iranian terrorists" or "Ukrainian neo-Nazis" — have become propaganda tools for both powers.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry now describes the attack on Iran as an "act of planned and unprovoked aggression against a sovereign UN member." Yet, President Vladimir Putin has refrained from direct condemnation. Instead, by calling for de-escalation and offering Moscow as a mediator, Putin is quietly validating the new status quo: a world where Great Powers no longer ask for permission when it comes to their strategic interests. 

While........

© The Moscow Times