NB: This is an English translation of the original talk in Russian, which is available here.
Before the transformation of the Belgorod region into a frontline zone of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the resulting increase in the media visibility for Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, Roman Strigunkov was the most well-known resident of Belgorod for many people interested in grassroots politics. Gaining fame as the leader of the "Russian Legion" during the Euromaidan protests in 2014, he has faded from view since then. And now, it seems he's ready to make a comeback.
АV: Greetings, Roman!
RS: Greetings!
АV: Let's start with the basics. Please reintroduce yourself to those who knew you but have forgotten, and introduce yourself to those who don't know you. How did you get involved in the Euromaidan and how the idea of creating the "Russian Legion" came to be? What were your hopes for the Ukrainian revolution, what was achieved, and what couldn't be realized?
RS: I was born and raised in Belgorod, but from the early 2000s until the start of the Bolotnaya protests in late 2011, I lived in Moscow, where I completed my military service, studied at Moscow State University, and worked at "Mail.ru Group" (now VK). One day, fellow activists from Belgorod suggested that I return and engage in public and political activities in our home region amidst nationwide protests. As one former associate put it: "You're the best among us. No one else will be able to do it." After the results of the so-called State Duma elections on December 4, 2011, were announced, we organized a "people's gathering" on Sobornaya Square in Belgorod on the same evening. Four of us were detained, including me. The head of the criminal investigation department personally came to carry out the arrests. We were placed in custody at the detention center on Sadovaya Street in Belgorod for two days for our initiative to hold such an opposition action. As we continued rallies against "police abuse" and demanded the repeal of Article 282, our recognition gradually grew.
In essence, the Belgorod region has always been part of the so-called "red belt," and there has always been strong support for the so-called Communist Party of the Russian Federation and any "party of power" from "Our Home - Russia" under Viktor Chernomyrdin to the current "United Russia." At the forefront has always been the irreplaceable (former governor) Yevgeny S. Savchenko, who, like the current Gladkov, was initially appointed by President Yeltsin's administration in 1993. Before being appointed to lead the Belgorod region, he served as the first secretary of the Shebekino city committee of the CPSU and an advisor in the Ministry of Agriculture of the RSFSR. It wasn't a particularly impressive experience. Nevertheless, according to those who visited the region as tourists, Savchenko made the region quite successful during his 27 years in power. Before the war, the Belgorod region was called the "Russian Switzerland." I and my closest acquaintances and colleagues always understood that if the region could become independent from Moscow's parasitic hold, it could live much better.
On May 22, 2011, we conducted the "Stop Feeding Moscow!" campaign right on the square in front of the "Fire Arc" museum diorama. Indirectly, due to understandable reasons, we expressed separatist sentiments, declaring a desire for economic and potentially political decentralization from Moscow. This stirred up a storm of critical emotions and profanity on social media and "LiveJournal."
Enormous interest from Federal authorities and major Moscow businesses in the relatively inconspicuous region began in late 1998. This was triggered when former State Duma deputy from the LDPR faction, Sergey Sychev, who represented the region in parliament, announced that V. Zhirinovsky would run for the position of Head of the Administration of the Belgorod Region in May 1999. The elections were quite scandalous: a prominent federal politician lost to a regional one. This pattern repeated later in 2004, during the elections to the Regional Duma (where deputies appointed the governor), with the LDPR campaigns being led by Yelena Baturina ("Inteko"), wife of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov. It's worth reminding the people of Belgorod that prices for basic products in the region were one and a half to two times lower before Moscow businesses arrived.
In December 2011, I returned to Belgorod and became fully engaged in political activities. Primarily, I participated in the nationwide protests of the "White Ribbon" movement and Navalny supporters. We traveled to Moscow to participate in rallies at Bolotnaya Square and Academician Sakharov Avenue. I was present at the so-called "Occupy Abay" (a Moscow version of the Maidan at Chistye Prudy). We organized the "March of Millions" rally in our "homeland" of Belgorod. We also conducted several anti-communist actions, including renaming a monument from "Civil War Heroes" to "Victims of the Civil War." Scandalous protests aimed at removing Lenin's monument from Sobornaya Square in Belgorod also took place, along with rallies at monuments for victims of political repression. Various factions on the left were upset about the emergence of a new competitor within their niche. Former controversial Regional Duma deputy Nikolay Mukhin ("Night Governor") even ended up being "exiled" to lead the Kemerovo Regional Committee of the CPRF. Additionally, I was the only one who managed to accomplish the unthinkable for two consecutive years: organizing and conducting two "Russian Marches" in Belgorod in 2012 and 2013. I ran for city council deputy in the "Sokol" district shortly before leaving. I was largely a pioneer, and nothing similar to what we had done was organized after my forced emigration.
The Euromaidan of 2013-2014 was a pivotal and fundamental event in the history of once-friendly countries and neighboring regions. Must highlight that during that period, the non-systemic opposition in Russia had only two political platforms: nominal liberals and nominal nationalists. There was no other opposition at the time. Udaltsov’s leftists couldn't really be considered opposition back then (although alongside Limonov’s "The Other Russia" they organized protests like "Days of Wrath" and "Strategy 31" in Moscow during the 2000s). Specifically, due to the "Left Front" leader’s behavior and statements, and his involvement in the Russian presidential elections as a representative of Zyuganov. In short, the beginning of full-scale war served as a litmus test for the already feeble opposition, revealing to a sane part of Russian society that there were only liberals and nationalists. The so-called left and right "imperialists/statists" turned out to be the mouthpieces of the Kremlin establishment's imperial-revanchist ambitions. As we now see, both have largely faded into obscurity, not fitting well into these roles. The luckiest fled, the rest were jailed. Some shared the fate of Maxim Martsinkevich (his persona deserves a separate story, I knew him well).
AV: Together with one of the previous guests on my blog, Oleg Goltvyansky, you were co-founders of the Russian-Ukrainian National Alliance (RUNA). Tell us about this project and your interaction with Igor Garkavenko, a right-wing activist from Kharkiv, who transitioned from a Eurasianist to a Ukrainian nationalist and, according to rumors, took his own life.
RS: Igor Garkavenko was a quite controversial and provocative figure. He possessed a rich imagination and confidence that his past notoriety in narrow circles as a regular author of "Limonka" largely focused on anti-Western themes had formed a positive reputation. In our interactions, he frequently accused me of various things without much basis and without knowing me well. He positioned himself as a philosopher but failed to notice critical comments I made within the discourse. He struggled to grasp the concept of discourse at all. He was declaring a symbiosis of opinions and concepts, which might be acceptable within the confines of academia but not in the public domain. This is why when he decided to deliver another quasi-philosophical lecture at the Trade Unions Building during the Euromaidan, in front of the "Right Sector" representatives, to which he invited me, he was escorted out of there. Once, he rushed into the "RUNA" tent on Khreshchatyk and announced a torchlight procession. According to him, he had received a green light. This was in March or even April, after the Maidan had already succeeded. The result was a confrontation between the tent camp on Khreshchatyk and those who barricaded themselves on Independence Square. Frankly, at the time, I didn’t understood anything at all. I didn't grasp why it was done or what its purpose was. I have videos archived, more precisely, on my YouTube channel. He organized a couple of rallies near the Russian embassy in Kyiv with flares, smoke bombs, and tires. Realizing he had become an outsider after the Maidan, as far as I remember, he turned to physical labor. Around the beginning of 2017, I saw Igor with his friends by chance in central Kyiv. He gestured as if recognizing me but being occupied. I haven't seen him since and heard nothing about him. I only recently learned about his suicide. I can't even imagine what could have driven a figure positioning himself as a philosopher to such an anti-symbolic act. In my opinion, if such thoughts arose, it would have been better to resort to a heroic death in battle against occupiers.
AV: While conversing with "Novaya Gazeta" publication, you were obviously under the influence of petty-bourgeois and blackpilled ideas about peaceful life in the European Union, viewing your political activities as finished and concerning yourself with obtaining a residence permit in Germany. You spoke about visiting the legendary "SSU basements" and the need to convince the locals there of your lack of connections with the state security agencies of the Russian Federation. Could you share whether your conversation with SSU employees aligned with the lofty ideals of European humanism? What did you say to them that they swiftly entrusted you with such a responsible project as the Belgorod People's Republic and allowed you to continue the cause of your idol Pyotr Krasnov?
RS: I have no other experience of "interaction" with the SSU in such an oppressive and heated format as I felt in early March 2022 in Uzhhorod, Kyiv, and primarily Lviv. Before the full-scale War began, I hadn't been detained or prosecuted. There wasn't a reason for it. I was working relatively calmly and was not meddling in Ukraine's internal politics, except for participating in Euromaidan in the first half of 2014. But, as I imagine, methods of communication of intelligence agencies are fairly similar everywhere. Especially if you're facing a representative/citizen of the aggressor country. Well, except that the FSB probably allows itself much more baseless and legitimate violence against detainees/enemies/Banderites/foreign agents than developed countries do.
The SSU has no connection to our project "Belgorod People's Republic", where I serve as a political executive. Comparisons with Lenin and how the German Reichswehr provided him and his Bolshevik Party with money for the revolution, the collapse of the Russian Empire, and the withdrawal of the Russian Republic from World War I, are baseless in this case. This is a grassroots initiative, so to speak.
As for the personality of Pyotr Krasnov, I fully support political leaders who upon uttering important words were leading the masses, not backing down from what they said. Otherwise, what's the point of agitating if one can't demonstrate fidelity to an idea through personal example? Additionally, Krasnov belonged to the old elite, where words were not thrown around like they are nowadays. We can also remember Marshal Mannerheim, who, under Nicholas II, was a cavalry guard in the ceremonial guard of the Life Guard Cossack Regiment during the Emperor's coronation. Later, he became a Russian Lieutenant General, a Marshal, and the founding father of independent Finland. Similarly, with Ukrainian fighters for independence like Stepan Bandera, Petliura, or Konovalets. The current Kremlin regime, however, has stopped paying attention to this. However, as recently as 15 years ago, Medvedev and Putin laid wreaths and flowers at Mannerheim's grave as part of official ceremonies during official visits to Finland.
AV: In an interview with the web portal GreenPost on June 8, 2023, you state that your current goal is to form a Ukrainian sub-ethnic group from the residents of Belgorod and to annex the Belgorod Oblast to Ukraine as a temporarily autonomous region. The topic of Russian regionalism and national democracy was actively explored by another past guest on my blog, Moscow right-wing figure Vladimir "Yarowrath" Frolov, the most popular blogger on the "LiveJournal" platform in the 2000s. He was a student of Alexey Shiropaev and Ilya Lazarenko and a teacher to Yegor Prosvirnin and Anatoly Karlin. Before the Putin regime used punitive psychiatry methods against Frolov and pushed him toward a pro-government discourse, he managed to create, and then remove from widespread access, a substantial philosophical, economic, and theological basis for a parade of sovereignties within the Russian Federation. Is such a fundamental approach not of interest to you, and do you simply want to mirror the Russian referendum methodology? Am I understanding this correctly?
RS: Mentioning so many names, which were undoubtedly significant for that time, we mustn't forget that we've been living in a qualitatively new paradigm of hybrid warfare and post-truth for a year and a half now. Concepts like Shiropaev's and others for dismantling Russia were developed in non-war conditions and didn't particularly envision mechanisms of collapse. Around a dozen assumptions were considered. But what happened on February 24th was unimaginable even for the scriptwriters of "Kvartal 95" and the TV series "Servant of the People," where Zelensky played himself as Goloborodko. The Kremlin writers from the Old Square in Moscow (Putin's Administration) turned out to be much more sophisticated "screenwriters." There are skilled conflictologists, clairvoyants, conspiracy theorists, psychologists, and even sectologists with astrologers in the Presidential Administration. As astonishing as it may sound. My mentor at Moscow State University was an advisor to Vladislav Surkov. It was Doctor of Philosophy Ash-ov who wrote him the famous concept of the "primal people", which significantly influenced the current situation.
Regarding "mirroring". The situation is developing rapidly. The prerequisites for the end of the War have not surfaced substantially yet. On March 17, 1991, a referendum was held in the USSR on the preservation of the Soviet Union, where the majority expressed their opposition to the state's dissolution. However, the USSR ceased to exist in December. Parallels with the current situation are quite comparable. Also, the war in Afghanistan and the "arms race". Sovdepia lost. The same is happening now. RFiopia cannot withstand the "collective West" economically, having barely 2% of the global GDP. The defeat in the War is a matter of time. And in the paradigm of Post-Truth and hybrid warfare, the historical spiral tightens.
AV: After Oleksiy Goncharenko, deputy of Petro Poroshenko's party, extensively promoted the recognition of Ichkeria's state independence, only to eventually push through the Verkhovna Rada some comical condemnation of encroachments on the cultural rights of the Chechens instead of recognizing their state independence, convincing anyone of Ukraine's serious attitude towards the BPR project will be much more challenging. What grounds do you have to believe that your initiative will go beyond online trolling? Has the initiative received an assessment from other active players in the Belgorod Front, such as the "Freedom of Russia" Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps? Why do you think these formations only emerged in 2022? Who do you plan to rely on and where do you intend to direct the process, from Belgorod or Germany? Lastly, what temporal frames do you set for yourself, and who will be at fault if, after their expiration, the BPR does not materialize?
RS: Let's take it step by step. All this would be just trolling if it weren't for the fact that the criminal Putin himself didn't raise this agenda on the program of the federal channel "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin". A quote from the original source: "... Do you understand? Each part separately! Why? To divide these parts and bring them under control. If we go this route, then we'll understand that the fates of many peoples of Russia…And, first and foremost, the Russian people, can change dramatically. I don't even know if an ethnic group like the Russian people will be able to survive. In the form it exists today. Well, there will be some Muscovites. Uralians. And so on. Well, that was all part of the plans. And these plans are on paper".
These words of the aged "Stasi" informer make us gather our thoughts. Everything that Putin is broadcasting is a long, orchestrated effort, and Kirienko in the Presidential Administration fully understands what is happening now. To be candid, the "Belgorod People's Republic" project is currently more consultative and anticipatory in nature. We are actively stoking the problem, giving the residents of Belgorod oblast time to consider that the criminal federal power is the power of parasites. That Belogorye is capable of self-sufficiency. Two decades before the War, around 30% of the population already held such views. At the very least, dissatisfaction with centralization around Moscow existed and persists. It's also important to note that in 2021, the Belgorod oblast stopped being a subsidized region and was expected to become a donor region by 2024.
"Freedom of Russia" and the RVC are not entirely independent organizations. Let's not forget that they are part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under certain conditions. So, if we were to negotiate anything, it would be more with higher-ups. Moreover, we have an undeniable trump card: legitimacy. We are locals. We were born on this land! In the eyes of the locals, that will always be an irrefutable advantage. Caesar (Oleg Goltvyansky) and I raised the issue of the "Russian Legion" back in December 2013 during Euromaidan. We anticipated the situation a decade ahead, already understanding where it was all leading. In the high offices back then, they looked at us as if we were lepers: "What Russian formations? Have you gone mad?" There were other projects of a similar nature, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Now, the militarized Russian opposition is a truly playable card in the hands of the Ukrainian Presidential Office. You could say in reverse: "We're not there. These are Russian citizens. Dissatisfied with Putin's dictatorship". We have a foothold, and it exists. Moreover, it's not always my old associates. The young generation, which has also matured in their views to the point of considering the regime criminal and that "we're not even fellow travelers with Moscow. We're not even neighbors". They call themselves Belgorod partisans. Again, the situation is unfolding rapidly. There's no predictability or forecastability. I'm confident that we're on the right path, and on this track, we have confident switchmen. In the former Belgorod Oblast of RFiopia, processes of elite change are already underway. For example, former mayors of Belgorod, Konstantin Polezhaev and Anton Ivanov, have been convicted and arrested. Even the criminal authority and businessman Moryak (Vladimir Tebekin) was imprisoned. They ran over all of Savchenko's "legacy". The old man Savchenko himself is in disgrace, and his book "Commotion" was condemned by the Orthodox world as heretical. Eugeny Stepanovich himself turned out to be among the sectarians. The residents of the two-million region unexpectedly learned that those who had been leading them for years were corrupt and crazy. And I wouldn't rule out that all the "former" ones might regroup at the moment of Russia's collapse. For example, to decentralize from Moscow. To lay the groundwork.
As for how all of this will be implemented and where it will be directed from, that's also a matter of time. Means and methods of legitimation will undoubtedly be found.
AV: At the rally on the anniversary of the October Revolution - November 7, 2013 - you gave a speech for which the radically liberal philosopher Karl Popper would undoubtedly reward you with a barrel of jam and a basket of cookies. You called for equating Bolshevism and Nazism, predating Ukrainian decommunization laws by almost two years. How do you assess the results of these laws and their impact on Ukrainian society?
RS: It was a rally for renaming the monument "To the Heroes of the Civil War" to "To the Victims of the Civil War". Civil war cannot have heroes. A couple of years before Euromaidan and the decommunization law in Ukraine, we held two rallies calling for the dismantling of the Lenin monument on Sobornaya Square in Belgorod. And by the way, Belgorod is currently the only regional center of RFiopia where there's no street named in honor of Lenin or his associates. And it's partly due to our efforts that there's no Lenin monument on the central square. Which was once Revolution Square and has now become the familiar Sobornaya. The struggle with symbols is inherent to humanity. It's anthropological. In the pre-internet, newspaper era of information dissemination, it had an even more provocative significance. Changing meanings has both an aesthetic and political character. I really liked how the emblem of the USSR was promptly removed from the shield of the "Mother Ukraine" monument in Kyiv. I know that place well, not far from the "Friendship of Peoples" subway station, which, I think, has also been renamed. Within the context of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia War, the format of changing narratives, the war of meanings, propaganda, and newspeak will undoubtedly continue as an inevitability of the highly emotional and borderline states of both societies.
By the way, I consider myself an advocate of the view that Hitler's National Socialism brought much less suffering and sorrow than the Lenin-Stalin version of communism. Especially considering "GULAG". I've been to the Solovetsky Islands and witnessed the mechanisms of torture and torment of prisoners. I'm convinced that even mentioning the "successes" of Bolshevism-Communism should result not only in imprisonment but also in applying the highest norm of social justice in the form of execution during the impending Civil War or mandatory psychiatric clinical examination. We're still experiencing the betrayal and renunciation of the Romanovs-Oldenburgs by Russia. There will be no tranquility until we deal with all the Bolshevik followers in the form of Sovoks. We have yet to become a civilized Europe. And only in a fragmented state. Moscow has completed its historical mission as the "Third Rome" of gathering "Russian lands".
AV: As I understand it, you are an acquaintance of Ilya Ponomarev, one of the most influential Russians in modern Ukraine. I have a personal misunderstanding with him, which you might be able to clarify. Back in 2014, as far as I could, I tried to smooth out communication between the Kharkiv Antifa and the Maidan. A certain Sergey Kirichuk from the Stalinist organization "Borotba" was doing the opposite - pushing the Antifa toward Anti-Maidan. There was always a person named Maxim Firsov in "Borotba", whom Ponomarev referred to as his "longtime assistant", both back then and later in a 2017 interview. Firsov never left "Borotba", even when Kirichuk started voicing radically pro-Russian, separatist messages. I know for a fact that Russian money was flowing into this organization not through him, but through Maoist Viktor Shapinov. However, in 2022, after the full-scale war began, Kirichuk started appearing on Ponomarev's YouTube channel, and it seems he received complete indulgence for his actions in 2014. The question is, based on your understanding of Ponomarev, his tactics, and goals, who could Maxim Firsov have been in the anti-Maidan "Borotba"?
RS: I don't have that deep an insight into their agenda. The activities of the leftists have always concerned me in a rather indirect way. I believe Ilya Ponomarev's influence is overestimated both for Ukraine and the post-Soviet space, especially compared to the back-and-forth squabbles of the so-called "Russian opposition," which over a decade only managed to barely formulate an anti-corruption basis for the "national idea of Beautiful Russia of the future" personified by Navalny. However, Alexey's thoughtless actions forced a reevaluation. Of course, Ilya Ponomarev saw this. What Ponomarev was engaged in before 2022 more closely resembles the activities of Yevno Azef (the head of the combat group of the Socialist-Revolutionaries who worked for the Tsar's intelligence service). Now, Ponomarev is quite respectable and recognized. Agreements are ready to be made with him and his followers, including at the international level. In particular, he recently signed a declaration of intent in Japan, where they assumed that with the collapse of RFiopia, they would finally be able to conclude a Peace Treaty recognizing territorial concessions. Ilya also successfully organizes events in Brussels, where participants of the so-called "Congress of People's Deputies" are seen as entirely legitimate political actors of post-Putin Russia.
AV: There's a lot of information online about your difficult relationships with the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee of Russia, the Basmanny Court of Moscow, and the main department for countering extremism of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. But there's no mention of the real consequences. Some things were seized, some things were uncovered, and some things led to investigations. Have you ever physically encountered employees of these agencies, or has staying in Ukraine and the European Union allowed you to avoid such encounters? In case you cross the Russian border, will you repeat the fate of Navalny, or is there a chance to go unnoticed?
RS: If the question is whether I'm a "couch oppositionist," that's open to interpretation. I don't consider martyrdom-like incarcerations a la Yashin and Navalny as a criterion for political struggle. If Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, or even our academician Sakharov were martyrs, then we live in a different paradigm. The situation now has fundamentally deteriorated. During the oppositional excitement of 2011-2012, I spent two days in the temporary detention center in Belgorod with a one-week interval. There's confirmation from district courts where I later insisted on the illegality of my detentions. After winning cases against the Regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, I even got them to reimburse me for moral compensation. After that, the police gave up on this practice but continued to monitor me, which was noticeable.
In September 2013, I participated in the city council elections in Belgorod. Already during the campaign, the city election commission officially labeled my campaign materials as extremist. They depicted a lion (the emblem of Belgorod) kicking a bear (the symbol of the "United Russia" party). The secretary of the city election commission took me aside and demanded an explanation for the homosexual imagery in my campaign. They thought the lion was raping the bear. Naturally, I lost the elections. In the same month, I filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office about the violation. But I didn't finish writing the complaint. An assistant prosecutor recognized me and put a thick folder in front of me: "This is about you!" Quickly skimming the contents and realizing what it was about, I thanked the representative of the Prosecutor's Office and practically ran out of the building. Those were materials for a future criminal case. I understand that this gesture was meant to give me time to think and make a decision. It was almost sympathetic, in a way. Similar hints came from the city administration in Belgorod, where I applied for permits for various events. Actual repressions barely touched me. After I left the country, the regional FSB launched a criminal case against me under Article 280 of the Russian Criminal Code. Strangely, a search was conducted in my parents' apartment only at the end of 2015, and documents, books, and a hard drive were seized. Some things and documents were never returned. According to my brother, nothing was officially written in the protocol during the search, not even warrants were presented. There were threats on the internet. They tried to lure me from Ukraine to Moldova. They threatened my brother. In 2017, they charged me under the notorious Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code, and in December, federal media reported that I was convicted in absentia by the Basmanny Court of Moscow. Although there's no confirmation of this on the websites of the court or the prosecutor's office. But I'm present in the list of extremists and terrorists on the website of Rosfinmonitoring. Which is, in principle, enough to fear for my freedom and life.
AV: While the war is ongoing, all Ukrainian citizens who don't consider themselves nationalists and/or liberals are watching the strategy of nationalists and liberals in protecting their ideological duopoly with interest and mostly in silence. In the event of Ukraine's defeat, we'll have to address the consequences of their decisions. In the event of victory, we'll have to do everything possible to prevent further strengthening of right-leaning tendencies and a repetition of the current legal nihilism towards draftees. In your opinion, could the entry of anti-liberal European and American forces into Ukraine significantly influence the situation in the country?
RS: I've always had a healthy Euro-skepticism towards Ukraine, which has chosen its pan-European path. But it was winding, and now it's dramatically winding. Everything will need to be fixed. As I see it, the current War is rectifying the shortsighted, if not criminal, policies of the 1990s. Primarily decisions made by Kuchma, and then Yanukovych and Tymoshenko ("Kharkiv Agreements"). The situation in Ukraine will indeed be influenced by the sentiments after the War. I hope for the enthusiasm of the Ukrainian nation and an unequivocal victory. As a consequence, the defeat of Putinism with unpredictable consequences, even for the former RFiopia. With the ongoing economic crisis, a potential default, and the stress of the population caused by military defeat, the worst scenario for the former Russian Federation might unfold - the disintegration of the state.
AV: Finally, let's ponder the hypothetical consequences of the national-liberal jackpot - the complete collapse of Russia. Do you understand, Roman, that RFiopia is not just an aggressive Putin regime but also a chain of historical consequences? In the European Union, there's a thing called social democracy, which is at the core of the European establishment. To a large extent, European social democracy leans on Bolshevism as its "bad cop", justifying its compromises with capitalism by using the Bolshevism scarecrow. If RFiopia disappears, demonizing Bolshevism would be akin to demonizing the Code of Hammurabi or the Qin dynasty. This could lead to waves of civil wars in Europe and will undoubtedly result in the radicalization of far-left and far-right forces, which will have to rewrite their dogmas. Aren't you afraid?
RS: Let me remind you how on August 1, 1991, George H.W. Bush spoke from the rostrum of the Ukrainian Supreme Council, warning Ukraine against making ill-considered decisions. Of course, he was referring to the future Declaration of Independence, which was adopted amidst applause from members of the CPSU. This doesn't quite align with the propaganda both in the USSR and in Russia now, which raised suspicions and accusations that the US, primarily the CIA and the State Department, were discreetly preparing the USSR for its dissolution. And now they are preparing Russia for its dissolution. It seems to me that the US isn't ready to witness the formation of another 15-20 states in the post-Russian space. The division of the legacy of Putin's criminal Russia, an inevitable Civil War, and the prospect of nuclear capabilities no longer residing in one set of hands but scattered across multiple unpredictable ones. This is what George H.W. Bush spoke about in Kyiv at that time. By that point, the civil war in former Yugoslavia had already begun. The dissolution of the USSR didn't have the fundamental impact you seem to think it could have now. Except for the elimination of the "Warsaw Pact", COMECON, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, which on the contrary allowed Poland and Germany to breathe more freely. China already controls a significant part of the Far East. It's not a joke that the port of Vladivostok has essentially become an internal port of China. Lumber, water from Lake Baikal, etc., are exported. Legion "Freedom of Russia" and RVC raids into the territory of the Russian Federation demonstrate the gaps on the border with Ukraine. Its vulnerability. Everyone was sent to Ukraine. The situation on the border with China is, I presume, not much better. Regarding civil wars. If the Chinese Communist Party, seeing the final weakening of Russia, decides to annex its former parts, this could indeed lead to civil wars, but not in Europe, rather in Asia. I don't see a confrontation between European social-democratic elites or a class struggle in this War. It's more like the tragedy of two nations. Or even a Slavic genocide, the roots of which lie in the unfinished old Civil War and the triumph of Bolshevism over reason. When I considered myself a Russian nationalist in the early 2000s, before Euromaidan, I saw Russia's greatness not in the way Putin and his associates understand it. I saw Russia as a high-tech state with oil, diamonds, gold, platinum - the entire periodic table. With such resources, Russia could achieve the unimaginable. And Putin could have truly entered history as a political genius, with time and a not-so-bad human resource at his disposal. But alas, the St. Petersburg thug became who we now perceive him to be. The consequences of this War will indeed be heavy. It's hard to even imagine how it will ultimately end, but it's undeniable that it's already a demographic and geopolitical catastrophe!
AV: Thank you for your detailed responses!
RS: I'm grateful for the opportunity to express myself and share my point of view.