Russian Idea and Russia's place in the world

In the recent years Russia has become a partner in multilateral combinations of the international actors, who seek survival and development without losing their independence. It's a kind of realpolitik too, but filled with much more ethics and common sense. But still the independent strugglers for the common future in this diverse and (at the same time) globalized world lack the unification force, lack the powerful mediator. Probably, Russia could be such a force, for it is a country that unified all the major world cultures under one roof and every such culture feels at home; but to play such a part, Russia should become a new social economical reality, and it couldn't be done by the blood of any kind of revolution. We actually have just one option — something like the Soviet Union plus belief in God. And, of course, the realities, that are quite different now, must be taken into consideration.

We lacked such an example in the past in our domestic as well as foreign politics. In that case the number of supporters, ready to help us, risking their own lives, could have been greater, and their quantity could have made quality, a prerequisite for success. And the number of defectors (who always have their personal material egoism underneath their “sublime” ideas, if we look at them a bit closer, and who “were so kind” to bring us knowledge of some valuable Soviet intelligence agents of the past) could have been less.
http://www.win.ru/en/ideas/2867.phtml

Iranian policy in Afghanistan

Much is being talked about Iran. And Afghanistan never goes off the papers' headlines. But Did you hear anyone talking about the Iranians in Afghanistan?
Afghanistan has always been one of the priorities of Iranian foreign policy. It is connected both with the common border and with the fact that Afghanistan is a part of the ancient Iranian-speaking world and it has long-standing cultural, economic and political ties with Iran. It is difficult to imagine any serious problem resolving in modern Afghanistan without active participation of Iran, moreover it is necessary to mention that problems of the Afghans has already become problems of the Iranian people...
http://www.eastwest-review.com/article/iranian-policy-afghanistan