Russia has fully recovered the status of a superpower, having global responsibility for the situation on the planet and the future of the civilisation, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said in an interview published by the Izvestiya daily on Thursday.
"A difficult period of the formation of a new system of values determining the ideological basis of the Russian society in the new millennium, underway in Russia since the early 1990s, has now ended," said Ivanov, who is also Russia's Defence Minister.
"We have left behind forever a confrontation model in the East-West system," he stressed. "Russia's actions on the world arena have become more pragmatic," the defence minister added.
"We have left behind the practice of relations, in which Russia was sustaining sizable economic losses in exchange for political loyalty of the leaders of certain foreign states," he stressed.
According to Ivanov, "a sovereign democracy, strong economy and military power are the new ternary of Russia's national values."
"Having stated its own ideological scheme, Russia has thus entered a tough and uncompromising competitive struggle," he warned.
He believes "the world order, in which only one centre of force is trying to dominate on the planet, and impose the rules of the game based on military and economic superiority on all others, is inadmissible".
{{/usCountry}}He believes "the world order, in which only one centre of force is trying to dominate on the planet, and impose the rules of the game based on military and economic superiority on all others, is inadmissible".
{{/usCountry}}The deputy prime minister also said that Russia should not avoid inevitable confrontation, but must consistently defend its position arguing in its favour "before those, who criticise us and who are our open adversaries".