recent years, much has been said and written about the Chinese BRI (Belt and Road initiative): the mainly discussed issues relating to its economic benefits for the participating countries and the possible impact in the global and regional balance of power. However, relatively little attention has been paid paid to the risks and problems affecting the success of the initiative in the long term. The diverse cultural, religious, economic, and socio-political situation in countries along BRI

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... contributes to the inevitable and inherent risks and challenges for the project, both domestically and internationally. It may mean that in order to implement BRI, China will have to deal with powerful global competitors and some influential regional powers, which implies a new geopolitical rivalry in Eurasia and the struggle for global influence. With the expansion of coverage to more than 70 countries, some concerns and complaints have arisen regarding BRI that have received wide publicity. In the expert community and the mass media, mainly in the West, we increasingly see comments on the growing problems of BRI and even forecasts of the possible refusal of developing countries to participate in BRI, due to their unwillingness to become an economic, raw material and financial appendage to the Middle Kingdom. According to critics of the Chinese initiative, previously optimistic participants of BRI will "soon realize" that all promises about the benefits of the project for their economies are greatly exaggerated, therefore they will have to reconsider their financial terms of agreements with the Chinese partners.