The article discusses the consequences of the rapid seizure of the Taliban of the authorities and strengthening the position of the Taliban in Afghanistan, which requires an adequate response to what happened from all interested countries, including, of course, Russia, CSTO countries and China. This reaction is determined by national interests, primarily the interests of security that can be posed of so rapid American care. It is clear that Moscow and Beijing unites the desire to protect themselves from the possible splash of Afghan Discharge beyond the boundaries of Afghanistan to its borders and both states will do everything possible for this. If this requires the establishment of pragmatic relationships with the new Afghan regime, it will be done and this. True, depending on the actions of the new owners of Kabul in internal and international politics. Another important part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the reasons for the destruction of the centuries-old model reflecting the American exclusivity and self-conceit, the combination of which served as one of the reasons for the US Afghan and NATO catastrophe.

The events taking place in the world as a result of the stampede of the United States from Afghanistan marked a radical change in the geopolitical and geostrategic picture of the world. As a result of these events, the United States of America in an instant turned into the ghost of a once powerful state, which has provided them with many allies and admirers until now. America came to the Middle East without understanding anything about its peculiarities, having squandered the lives of its own citizens and gigantic resources without any tactics and strategy. As a result, they suffered the greatest strategic blow in Afghanistan since the end of the Cold War. This also means the defeat of US allies, primarily NATO, who realized in mid-August 2021 that the US administration would not coordinate its actions with them on the issue of ending the Afghan mission. Thus, a serious problem for the United States after its strategic defeat in Afghanistan was the destruction of trust in Washington as an alliance partner and, as a result, the undermined prestige of the United States. The published article answers the question of what global consequences can be expected as a result of all this and how the impact of the Afghan catastrophe of the United States will manifest itself in the near and long term.

The article is devoted to the problem of the national security of Russia. The reasons that influenced the intensification of threats in connection with the events in Afghanistan are identified. The analysis of all the circumstances that caused the exacerbation of the situation in Afghanistan. The article convincingly shows that the main reason for the destabilization of the situation in Afghanistan was the ill-considered and poorly organized withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the country, which provoked a humanitarian catastrophe in the country. The author notes that over the 20 years of the US stay in Afghanistan, it has not been possible to solve urgent political and socio-economic problems, political stabilization has not occurred. The crisis worsened in the country, the official Afghan government, which held power for several decades with US military support, could not resist. The Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation) came to power in the country, with the support of the majority of the population, and in a non-military way. The author believes that it is now unclear whether the moderate Taliban, seeking to establish international contacts, will remain in power, or the radical terrorist Islamist elements of the Taliban movement (banned in the Russian Federation) will prevail, whose activities are to whip up a terrorist threat, impose radical Islamism, and spread drug trafficking, etc. Migration flows from Afghanistan will increase, among which suicide bombers can penetrate into other countries. All this is not only an internal affair of Afghanistan, but also poses a threat to overall international security. For the countries adjacent to Afghanistan — Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, India, Central Asian countries and Turkey — a number of serious questions arose about the prospects for the development of the situation in Afghanistan, including significant threats to regional security: international terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, support for extremist and separatist movements from the territory of Afghanistan, encouragement of radical Islamists in neighboring countries with the victory of the Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation), etc. Russia is making every effort to establish constructive cooperation with neighboring countries and the United States in order to resolve the Afghan crisis.

Hasty American withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of its occupation becomes not only the turning-point in the history of this long-suffering country, but in most essential way touches the situation in the world on the global level as well on regional one. Being close neighbor of Afghanistan the Middle East inevitably will be put under the pressure of the political, migration and other consequences as the result of the power change in Afghanistan. The Middle East region in its diversity and multi ethnical Afghanistan are close spiritually and culturally areas which confessing of most the same or similar faith. They are also close in view of traditional structure of their civil societies, strong tribe bases, cultural, sexual, moral and manners ways of life. As the result they have turned out to be the worldwide centers of the political extremism reproduction of different forms, became terroristically contagious. That’s why all these attempts to undermine existing and deep-rooted orders in these regions have been doomed to end in failure. The last and the most large-scale attempt of this kind, which has worldwide repercussions is the American adventure in Afghanistan. It has different consequences, the most crucial among them as far as the Middle East is concerned is shift in the balance of powers in the region, weakening of the American influence, a blow to American overmighty prestige among local ruling elites. All of that will have multi sides and less predictable, at least at the moment, results.

The article notes the relevance of the problem of the Afghan settlement for Iran in the light of the radical changes that have occurred in Afghanistan after the rapid escape of the United States and its allies from Afghanistan and the rapid seizure of power in Kabul by the Taliban. The main factors, that force Iran to pay serious attention to solving the crisis in Afghanistan, are considered. The long land border with Afghanistan makes it difficult to control the situation at the border and illegal migration. Due to the ongoing anti-Iranian sanctions of the West and the lack of progress in negotiations on the revival of the JCPOA, Iran has to pay more attention to the development of cooperation with neighboring countries, including Afghanistan, which is one of Iran's main economic regional partners. Iran wants to play a leading role in the Afghan settlement process. Tehran is actively participating in the work of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other international organizations to resolve the Afghan crisis. Iran proposed to the UN to hold an international donor conference on Afghanistan and also to increase financial assistance to Iran to compensate costs connected with the accommodation of Afghan refugees. For this purpose, Iran also maintains regular bilateral contacts with all neighboring countries. Iran, on the one hand, seeks to prevent a new wave of Afghan refugees, smuggling of drugs and weapons into its country, and, on the other hand, intends to resume and expand economic cooperation with Afghanistan.

The article discusses the particular issues of the PRC’s modern public diplomacy. It is widely known that the rapid development of telecommunication technologies in the last decade has contributed to the active informational globalization processes in the modern world. Under these circumstances, the non-state actors’ activity has drastically increased. China is a prime example of effective implementation of such activities into public diplomacy by resorting to the “soft power”, which serves as the foundation of Chinese foreign policy. This article demonstrates the evolution and main stages of public diplomacy development in China. It is highlighted that the Chinese government has designated creating favorable international environment and modernization of the country as the main task of the public diplomacy. The article also demonstrates how the highest governing bodies of the Chinese Communist party and government, as well as specialized “think tanks”, devise the general vector of the foreign policy and public diplomacy both at home and overseas; the aforementioned organizations include the institutions engaged in economic and cultural cooperation, sports and education. Thus, the delegation of devising “soft power” policy to cultural institutions instead of foreign policy oriented organizations constitutes a specific trait of the Chinese public diplomacy. The article highlights issues of China’s economic development and the historical and political place of that country in the world. The main directions and methods of the Chinese public diplomacy are thoroughly analyzed in this article. The Confucius Institute, Chinese cultural centers, mass media, educational systems and numerous Chinese diaspora constitute the major actors of the “soft power”, which methods include such elements as Chinese economic influence and initiatives in Chinese language training. The author also draws attention to the questions regarding the One Belt One Road Initiative and its place in the development of modern economy. The article also analyzes the PRC authorities’ concept of “Community of Common Destiny”, which represents a global project of establishing the new world order. The author indicates that China faces a number of problems with the “soft power” despite significant progress in this sphere. For instance, the global community has its doubts whether Chinese economic aid and trade agreements are implementations of “soft power” or just other forms of political and economic pressure; many developing countries are disapproving of the Chinese investment mechanisms.

The article is dedicated to the memory of the prominent Soviet, Russian diplomat — Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin, who for several decades represented our country in the diplomatic field, including the UN. Vitaly Churkin, undoubtedly, was a bright personality, a brilliant orator and a high professional. He firmly and consistently defended the interests of our state in the international arena, and at the same time could clearly formulate his own position on acute issues of world politics, which gave special strength to his argumentation. Vitaly Churkin was fluent in foreign languages, and could correctly and accurately interpret the foreign policy strategy of our country. This helped him intelligibly and convincingly convey its meaning to his Western colleagues, which contributed to finding political solutions to conflict situations in the course of resolving international regional crises. Vitaly Churkin knew the background and many details of the events, which made him deeply aware of the essence of the discussed international problems. He possessed a rare gift of persuasion that contributed to the achievement of a consensus of the parties in resolving acute conflict international situations. This was especially evident when the UN was considering such complex and delicate issues as the Crimean issue. Vitaly Churkin was a brilliant master of his craft. He was constantly at the forefront of the diplomatic front. Vitaly Churkin made a worthy professional contribution to the history of diplomacy and foreign policy of our country. With the passage of time, the deeper meaning of his precise diplomatic steps to maintain political stability in the world becomes more and more obvious. The diplomatic activities of Vitaly. Churkin must be analyzed again and again so that his memory constantly highlights the role of the individual in the history of our state and in upholding the main principles of international security and a world order without global conflicts.