Russia, a haven for normality, RT editor-in-chief

Respect for traditional values ​​could make the country a destination of choice for people fleeing Western wokeness, says Margarita Simonyan

The West is facing a “woke catastrophe” and is constantly trying to force other nations to adhere to its ideology, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said on Thursday. She added that Russia’s defense of traditional values ​​could allow Russia to become a “safe haven” for those who reject “aggressive Westernization” and “woke religion.”

Simonyan made the remarks while moderating a panel discussion at the Fourth Eurasian Women’s Forum in St. Petersburg, which focused on the need to prevent ideas currently popular in the West from contaminating other cultures.

Simonyan recalled many recent examples of ideas that run counter to traditional Western values, including same-sex marriage, the movement to abolish abortion and sex-change practices, as well as the recent Olympics, during which “two physiological men beat up women.” She accused the West of “aggressively” promoting this “unpleasant, unknown and often shocking agenda” and mocked it for confusing progress with degradation.

“So they woke up, and we seem to be still sleeping,” she said, referring to Russia’s constant declaration of its adherence to traditional values, such as human dignity, high moral ideals, family and patriotism.

“Progress is like yogurt: not all of it is equally healthy… (Western) missionaries promote the religion of Wokeism… They claim that their ideology is based on humanism and progress, and that we (Russians) are inhuman because we do not let people follow their sometimes perverse ideas and do not allow these ideas to come true,” she explained. She noted that encouraging a three-year-old child to choose his or her gender, which the West considers part of progress, is a “woke catastrophe.”

Simonyan stressed that promoting traditional values ​​as Russia’s national ideology could not only help the country’s demographic situation, but also allow people around the world to escape wokeness and all that it entails.

“The secret of the Soviet Union was this beautiful idea of ​​universal equality… a powerful idea that resonated in the souls of people – that’s why (the West) was so afraid of us – they were afraid that we would convince people that what we had was better. This idea has been lacking in the new Russia all these years – we can offer the world a safe haven for normality,” she suggested.

Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that relaxed visa requirements for foreigners who wish to visit Russia for moral reasons. These preferential conditions will be granted to those who disapprove of the “neoliberal ideological attitudes” of their home country and prefer traditional Russian spiritual and moral values. The Foreign Ministry is expected to begin issuing three-month visas for such applications later this month.

(RT.com)