Today, the U.S. and European economies are looking for solutions to overcome their deep structural imbalances, while China has good prospects to become a leading economic power within the next five to six years and, possibly, make the yuan the main reserve currency. There are no signs yet that Washington is going to change its policy of igniting inflation, and the crisis in the euro zone is still dragging on. On the whole, a basically new landscape may take shape in the world in the next twenty years, which will mean a painful re-adjustment of international relations.

In this connection, I would like to cite the conclusion of Academician Sergei Kapitsa, who in his last years spent much time addressing historical issues. He convincingly demonstrated that the historical process is continuously accelerating, and that each new stage in history is twice shorter than the previous one. I think we all feel this reality very well.

Many factors suggest that a new historical stage is beginning. Speaking specifically of Russia, this stage has both pluses and minuses for this country and offers risks and new opportunities. On the one hand, we really do not know how the processes in the West will affect us. I mean, above all the EU, our main partner in trade and in technological and investment cooperation, and a major consumer of Russian hydrocarbons. On the other hand, given such a radical “redeal of the cards,” many things can probably be started with a clean slate, and far from all the rules setting the international hierarchy today will be applicable in the future. It is not ruled out, for example, that much significance will be attached not to where this or that technology was created but to the ability to put it to better use. In this regard, Russia, with its literate and daring population and huge resources, has obvious advantages.

Today, no one argues that the