Russia, national interest, and international values

When will we reach the stage of One World, One People? I'm still thinking it's a 10,000 year project. Let's face it, national self-interest is still the driving motivation in world affairs. And even where progress is made, backsliding is sure to follow. 

The resurgent Russians want to remake several international organizations, most importantly the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, in their image, a plan not likely to come to complete fruition, but trouble-making nonetheless. 

This Economist article, Vague but Sinister, explains recent Russian proposals to remake European and international security agreements more to their liking. As a boundless cosmopolitan these passages stood out-

That is because, put bluntly, Russia now thinks it got a bad deal when the old cold war ended. The OSCE promotes an interfering “western” agenda of human rights and open elections.

Human rights and open elections are good things. Are they strictly "western"? One of the themes I'd like to develop with The Boundless Cosmopolitan, is the wrong-headedness of associating an idea with a culture, or with a place on the map. Ideas do indeed originate somewhere, a human being, or group of them, creates a concept, and though that person may be from the east or west, north or south,  it's still a human idea. As a friend told me, dismissing an idea because of where it came from is like refusing to read a book because you didn't write it.

I agree with the Economist in that-

The main response should be that security is not just about powerful countries and blocks striking legalistic deals; it is also about values...If Russia now chokes on the notion of a Europe-wide commitment to political freedom, the rule of law and the rights of small countries to determine their future, that is troubling. But it is says more about what’s wrong with Russia than about anything else.

Exactly.