By Dmitry Kosyrev

It’s hard to help a nation if it doesn’t even have a proper government; but now, after Sri Lanka’s presidential election on July 20, the question of helping that nation stops being purely academic. And there is a vivid discussion on the subject of such help on Russian TV and in other mass media.

It all began in late May, when we learned about Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s intention of coming to Moscow for a talk about supplies of Russian oil to the island. There was a rumour that the sales would have to be on credit. The Moscow officials confirmed that a visit may happen. But then Rajapaksa lost power, now we have a new president there, so the game may start anew.

But, in the meantime, the Russian public profited from a debate about some distant land wanting our oil for free. Why should we agree to that? Especially considering the fact that not everyone here may find Sri Lanka on the map.

My good friend, Professor Boris Volkhonsky of the Moscow University, an Indologist, said to a reporter of one of the websites that this is how you lay the foundation of friendship with a good country for decades to come that will be akin to what cements Russo-Indian ties. Sri Lanka, he added, is asking for cheap oil, not free oil, because people there can see how we deliver discounted oil to India.

Sri Lanka is not India, retorted another friend of mine, Vicky Nikiforova, a brilliant opinion writer. The Rajapaksa clan, she said, had gone to the dark side and ruined their country, becoming a stooge of Wes Edens, an American billionaire in love with ideas of a global green transition, forsaking fossil fuel, etc. Rajapaksas have accepted his partnership and his policies, and that’s when the nation crumbled. So let us ensure that this madness will never crop up in our future projects with anyone.

We have something interesting here. You have to be Russian to speak freely on a lot of sacred global subjects, including the green transition. In my country it is not a crime to say all that talk about getting rid of oil and gas to save the climate is just one huge and ugly hoax, ruining nations and people’s lives. In other countries you may have to pay lip service to all that green crowd, while waiting for its demise owing to cases like Sri Lanka.

But that’s only a by-product of the mentioned debate. Let’s assume that now we may well see a renewal of Sri Lankan pledges to Russia for a restart of Sri Lankan economy and society. So, again, why should we do it and how could we be of help?

Here I’d like to recall a good question asked recently by the anchor of yet another TV show: Tell me what should be the image of a Russian in the outside world. My answer was, a Russian, or Russia as a nation, is someone who comes to rescue when all hope is gone. That’s what happened in Syria. We helped the nation to break the back of a truly terrible enemy, the ISIS jihadis, we saved an ancient civilization and its elites and government, our old friend.

But, first, we had plenty of reasons to do that, including all these tens of thousands of Syrians living in Russia or coming there as refugees at the height of disaster in 2015. Most Russians may have met or seen these people, and helping them was kind of natural, that is not so with the people of Sri Lanka.

And, second, we did not do that alone. We have created a group of nations with a stake in Syria, and that group is still around. Last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met his counterparts from Iran and Turkey in Tehran, and they discussed the state of things in Syria today. That grouping is there to stay, until there are no more problems in and around Syria.

The three nations in that grouping, however, are far from being in total agreement. Russia and Turkey are always on the brink of an argument, not to mention the complicated relations between Turkey and Iran. But then, they meet and talk precisely for that reason, and that strange ad hoc triangle works, while no other organization or power could achieve anything good in and around Syria.

And here we get back to our Sri Lanka case, asking ourselves, why would Russia aid that country alone? Why can’t it do the same with other regional shareholders, like India and/or China? Then, at least, nobody in Russia would be asking questions about oil on “credit”.

The question about China’s role is tricky. China is not the main problem in Sri Lanka’s debt crisis, since 47% of the island’s debt is owed to the West, and only 10%  to China (and the same amount to India). But, yes, you may ask any time what China wants from Sri Lanka; is it true that it refused to help and let the country die, being unhappy with the mentioned Wes Edens and his green madness.

But look again at that trio that have just met in Tehran, the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran. Do they agree on every point? We have already said that it’s not so. But these three nations are relevant to the situation in Syria, so they talk to one another and come to agreements when possible.

So if there are any possible shareholders in Sri Lanka’s revival, let these nations join the fray, not having to be completely friendly with the rest.

All these discussions in Russia’s expert circles proved their value for at least one more reason. Namely, they helped us to understand the shape of the world to come. Sri Lanka may not be the only case of a meltdown in the nearest future, and it’s good that we have precedents of regional players getting together to tackle such cases.

-Dmitry Kosyrev is a columnist for the Russian State agency website ria.ru, as well as for other publications