Author of quotes: Sergey A. Karaganov

But what if they don't back down? Have you completely lost your sense of self-preservation? Then you will have to hit a group of targets in a number of countries in order to revive those who have lost their minds. This is a morally terrible choice - we use the weapons of God, dooming ourselves to heavy spiritual losses. But if this is not done, not only Russia may perish, but most likely the entire human civilization will end.

I have said and written many times that if we build a strategy of deterrence and even use correctly, the risk of a "retaliatory" nuclear strike, and indeed any other strike on our territory, can be minimized. Only if a madman sits in the White House, besides hating his country, America will decide to strike at the "defense" of the Europeans, incurring a response, sacrificing a conditional Boston for the sake of a conditional Poznan. Both the US and Europe are well aware of this, they simply prefer not to think about it. Yes, and we contributed to this thoughtlessness with our peace-loving statements.

We can fight for another year or two or three, sacrificing thousands and thousands of our best men and grinding tens and hundreds of thousands of people who fell into a tragic historical trap of the inhabitants of the territory that is now called Ukraine. But this military operation cannot end with a decisive victory without imposing a strategic retreat or even capitulation on the West. We must force the West to give up trying to turn back history, give up its attempts at global dominance and force it to take care of itself, digesting its current multi-level crisis. Roughly speaking, it is necessary that the West simply “fall away” and not prevent Russia and the world from moving forward.

The confrontation with the West in Ukraine, no matter how it ends, should not distract us from the strategic internal movement - spiritual, cultural, economic, political, military-political - to the Urals, Siberia, the Great Ocean. We need a new Ural-Siberian strategy, which includes several powerful spiritual projects, including, of course, the creation of a third capital located in Siberia. This movement should become part of the urgently needed formulation of the "Russian dream" at last - the image of that Russia and that world that one wants to strive for.

The situation is aggravated by "strategic parasitism" - for 75 years of relative peace, people have forgotten the horrors of war, they have ceased to be afraid even of nuclear weapons. Everywhere, but especially in the West, the instinct of self-preservation has weakened. I have been studying the history of nuclear strategy for many years and have come to an unequivocal, albeit sounding not quite scientific, conclusion. The appearance of nuclear weapons is the result of the intervention of the Almighty, who was horrified when he saw that people, Europeans and the Japanese who joined them, unleashed two world wars over the course of one generation, which claimed tens of millions of lives, and handed the arms of Armageddon to humanity, showed those who had lost their fear of hell that he exists. On this fear rested the relative peace of the last three-quarters of a century. Now that fear is gone. The unthinkable from the point of view of previous ideas about nuclear deterrence is happening - the ruling circles of a group of countries, in a fit of desperate rage, unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower. The fear of nuclear escalation must be restored. Otherwise humanity is doomed.

Falling inside, the Western elites began to actively feed the weeds that had broken through on the soil of seventy years of prosperity, satiety and peace - all these anti-human ideologies: the denial of the family, homeland, history, love between a man and a woman, faith, service to higher ideals, everything that makes up the essence person. Weed those who resist. The goal is to mankurtize people in order to reduce their ability to resist the increasingly obviously unjust and harmful to man and humanity, modern "globalist" capitalism.

We are the victorious people. All hegemons were defeated. With great difficulty Chingizids. Karl XII was knocked out. Then Napoleon. Then Hitler. And now, gentlemen, we are ending US dominance. We did not fight against them, we defended ourselves. They have a crisis. Both by itself, and because the West is deprived of the opportunity to pump the world GDP in its favor, which it has been using for 500 years. We are the providers of freedom and peace.

We need a new offensive ideology that would restore Russian courage inside and then be projected outside. We have a huge number of ideas that are on the table and that we do not use. One of Russia's tasks is to stop spitting from the West. We must look at them with a sufficient level of arrogance. They are going through a civilization crisis. We can even look at them with compassion, without reacting to all the rubbish they pour.

Due to the economic downturn, which is just beginning to unfold in the world, a huge number of states and systems will fall down. For us, my answer is simple - neo-isolationism. This means - to cut as far as possible all points of external vulnerability and to deal with their internal affairs, economic revival and the formation of ideology. In today's world, which is losing stability before our very eyes, any involvement is not an asset, but a liability. Anyone! Even if it seems that you are winning somewhere, these victories will be costly, and they are temporary. Therefore, the strategy for the next two to four years is to isolate oneself from the outside world as much as possible and concentrate on solving one's own problems. This is the only way for today.

A new era is coming. But a new era is well a minimum of fifteen years. So, we hurry and it is impossible and you have to understand that those fifteen years at least - the first half of those fifteen years will be very sharp and hard struggle. Therefore, we must understand that history is on our side, to curl, to help her, but the door of history, I think, is not necessary. And, in my opinion, XI Jinping very careful. We Russians sometimes speak much more clearly and much more strongly. We have a different national character - we are not merchants, we're soldiers, but in this situation we need to act is also quite discreet. However, in recent years, we began to act that way.

Understand the conditional Putin was an authoritarian leader, because Russia asked them to. This story. Non-authoritarian leaders in Russia were down from the throne. I repeat: the constant intervention and private land grabbing forged a certain mentality. In him a fierce desire for independence and sovereignty. <...> When you say: "Russia - the successor of the Empire of Genghis Khan" is a terrible irritation from intellectuals. But what we are. Moreover, in the world of stiff competition in authoritarian States are better able to concentrate resources and to pursue a consistent long-term policy, the advantage over the modern democracies. But authoritarianism is, of course, not a panacea. It often leads to stagnation or even failure. Russia needs 15 years of peaceful development. As a result, we become more humane and more democratic.

Putin is very sensitive to the opinion of the population. It's important to him. We are now experiencing the reaction time, but open a "Pandora's box" and you will find that our people - the anti-Westerners. Authoritarian Russia is not imposed from above. It is the result of our history that shaped our genetic code. Without the centralization of power could not develop and to ensure the safety of such a huge country with geographically not protected by borders. When this power is weakened in the early seventeenth century was a turmoil, the collapse and intervention of the poles. The same collapse, civil war, intervention - followed the democratic revolution of February 1917. And then came the Bolsheviks and the terror of the Gulag. I still think that the country miraculously did not die after the revolution of 1991 and the subsequent collapse.

When we rushed to Europe, we of course wanted to be part of her political and military system. The short-sightedness and greed - I cannot and do not want to look for a different formulation of the reasons why Western colleagues is the desire rejected. It was a tragic mistake for everyone, especially for Europe. Have not seen the imminent future - already advancing a fundamental change in the balance of forces in the world. Was almost inevitable further loss of the West military superiority - the Foundation of the XVI century, its hegemony in the political, economic and cultural spheres. Europe was a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our safety and world position. <...> Now Russia in military-political terms - the most important part, the West. And that finishes off its military superiority.

Democracy is antimilitary. Choosing to do this themselves and not the best. It is now forced to pay Europe.