Introduction: "The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, seen by many analysts as a ‘proxy war’ between the United States and the Russian Federation, can be seen as another manifestation of tensions developing in East-West relations since at least 2008. At that time, not only was there a global financial crisis that undermined confidence in the liberal world order (global market mechanisms and economic institutions controlled by the Western powers) but there was also the outbreak of the Russian-Georgian war, a prelude to the subsequent Ukrainian crisis (2013–2014) and Russia’s annexation of Crimea."(...)