COVID-19 pandemic started one century after Spanish flu epidemic that killed about 40 million people. It ended as unexpectedly as it began, and was followed by the Paris Conference of 1919, which gave start to the Versailles system, planned as a new system of eternal peace, but collapsed 20 years later. The same happened with the Yalta system at the end of XX centure. Today, the configuration of the world is in the process of changes. The USSR disappeared from the political map of the world, and new world centers appeared with different views on global politics. The interests of the United States, Russia, China, and EU-27 do not coincide, and often contradict each other. Today, with a certain degree of probability, one can speak of the formation of a "new bipolarity", where the United States? NATO and the EU enter into an economic, political and potentially a military confrontation with China and Russia. The future of this system will largely depend on both the outcome of economic competition between the West and China and the level of development of relations between China and Russia. The current pandemic, let's hope, will also end someday, and humanity will be able to create a system of bipolar or multipolar interstate relations that will reliably protect the world from epidemics and wars. This article examines the prospects for the formation of a multipolar world and the future role of Russia
IS LITHUANIA READY FOR AN UNPREDICTABLE FUTURE?: THE EU AND NATO CASES