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Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council Nikolai Patrushev’s interview with Izvestia on 3 May, 2023
Question: Mr Patrushev, our discussion is taking place on the eve of the 78th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. It is common knowledge that many people in the world, especially in the West, would like to forget this date and cover up the role of our country in World War II. What do you think about this campaign?
Nikolai Patrushev: The establishment of the UN was an important result of World War II. The Soviet Union played a key role in its creation and received one of the leading positions there.
Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Washington and London decided that this was their chance to set up a unipolar world. The Anglo-Saxons are not giving up on this idea even now. The West believes that destroying Russia or relegating it to a third-rate country governed by an external administration, would serve to alter the international order.
However, their desires overlook the strength of our state and the will of the people of Russia to remain independent. Consequently, in an effort to achieve a dominant position, the Anglo-Saxons are working to revise the results of the war, to deprive Russia of its status as a victorious country and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to rewrite history and to force everyone to forget the heroic feats of the multi-ethnic Soviet nation.
The West started trying to distort the history of World War II even when its final shots were being fired. In the early stages of the conflict, the UK tried to publish a collection of fake documents to name the Soviet Union as the main culprit responsible for unleashing the war in Europe. Modern fact-juggling specialists have no misgivings about equating the aggressive ideology of Nazi Germany with the Soviet Union’s Communist ideas. In fact, they are using the clichés of their predecessors.
Question: Additionally, the West overlooks the inhuman nature of fascism, while forgetting history. How can you explain this trend to rewrite history?
Nikolai Patrushev: They have no choice but to suppress this. There are many irrefutable facts showing how representatives of the Anglo-Saxon elite shared fascist ideas, provided financial and organisational support to Hitler, and now they have to save their democratic face. Fascism and Nazism remain the ultimate evil, regardless of whether they are wearing a frock or a military uniform or any other clothes.
Nevertheless, the Anglo-Saxons are eagerly reinstating neo-Nazi ideology to accomplish their modern geopolitical objectives. These experiments are leading to a global disaster, rather than domination, and it is therefore necessary to thwart them in a tough and uncompromising manner.
Question: Some Western experts claim that the West needs global domination to ensure its own economic prosperity. So, it turns out Russia is a historic hindrance thwarting its plans, isn’t it?
Nikolai Patrushev: We can even agree with them in this sense. Russia is like a thorn in the West’s side and stands in the way of its efforts to create a world order of its own. More than a hundred years ago, English geographer Halford John Mackinder formulated the well-known Geographical Pivot of History theory and the theory of Heartland, or the Middle Land, which is occupied by Russia. He argued that whoever ruled Heartland commanded the World-Island, as he called Eurasia. Whoever controlled the Heartland, he believed, was able to command the Eurasian space, and this, in turn, created the basis for global domination.
He also conceived the idea that this country could be isolated with the help of the so-called cordon sanitaire made up of smaller East European nations. Likewise, it was Mackinder’s initiative to strip Russia of Ukraine and other outlying areas of the former empire. It was so many years ago, but their goals remain unchanged.
Question: Do I understand you that the West’s geopolitical science still follows the patterns he suggested?
Nikolai Patrushev: The West’s global anti-Russia strategy has remained the same for centuries. I recalled Mackinder because he was one of the first to make a theory based on Western civilisation’s numerous aggressive crusades against Russia.
NATO’s eastern expansion even follows the same routes as those taken by Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Hitler.
All major wars of conquest against this country were aimed at putting an end to its existence as the principal geopolitical force in Eurasia.
Immediately after World War II, the United States drew up a series of plans with the purpose of destroying the USSR. Among other things, it intended to drop atomic bombs on dozens of Soviet – and Chinese – cities. They were emboldened by impunity, for no one took them to account for their acts of nuclear terrorism against Japan, whose cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been bombed.
Question: While in Japan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speculated about the human suffering caused by the nuclear bomb attacks. But he deliberately avoided mentioning the fact that the strikes had been delivered by America. Why, in your opinion, did he fail to denounce the very possibility of a nuclear conflict?
Nikolai Patrushev: This comes as no surprise. The Americans do not know what war is all about in principle. The last engagements on their soil and continent ended back in 1865. They never experienced the horrors of a siege, devastation, hunger, and death camps; they never lost millions of lives. Therefore, their elite feel at ease talking about the need to produce more arms, inflict a military defeat on Russia, prepare for new wars, etc. They violate international agreements and feel no scruples about getting ready to resume live nuclear tests. They would cynically take the decision to let Australia have the know-how to build nuclear-powered submarines for the AUKUS military alliance.
Question: But in this conflict, Europe is, in fact, in the epicentre of developments. Does it have politicians who can make objective assessments or refuse to follow the Washington-suggested path?
Nikolai Patrushev: Today’s European politics is in a profound moral and intellectual crisis. A blatant case in point is the Munich Security Conference, to which the Western politicians came simply to read to each other State Department’s guidelines.
The United States has actually occupied Europe by creating for its own needs the mechanisms of the North Atlantic Alliance. Driven into an impasse, European officials have turned the Old World into an economic base for US experiments and obediently implement NATO’s military objectives. The Pentagon-manipulated NATO command is in direct contact with arms producers and simply disregards the official authorities of other countries.
NATO expansion enables Washington to put under its control new territories in Eastern Europe. Indicative in this connection is the algorithm whereby new countries join the alliance. It requires them to pledge fealty to a “master” by handing the ratification instruments directly to the US government.
Question: The West has theories and justifications for any of its actions. For example, the European elites are quite serious about the “brave new world” concept suggested by Klaus Schwab, founder and patron of the World Economic Forum. The concept, by the way, is about a prosperous life for only a limited number of persons. Can we say that their actions today are influenced by this concept?
Nikolai Patrushev: According to theories created by Mr Schwab and people like him, the “brave new world” is not for Russia and its population. Following its plans, the West consistently builds up its political, military and economic pressure on this country.
NATO has deployed additional military contingents in East European countries. There are nearly 60,000 US troops in the region. The Alliance has modernised military infrastructure near Russian borders and boosted the scale and intensity of its operational and combat drills. It is supplying military equipment and arms to Ukraine and has opened dozens of training centres for Ukrainian troops.
Paying lip service to the importance of fighting terrorism, the West actively uses terrorist and extremist organisations against Russia and is falling back on the methods it employed in the North Caucasus in the 1990s.
Western secret services are training terrorists and saboteurs to commit crimes in Russia. They hope to instil fear in the population and undermine the nation’s constitutional foundations.
The Anglo-Saxons have impounded Russia’s financial assets, using the patterns Britain tested back in the 1920s, when it brazenly laid its hands on the gold reserve of the Russian Empire.
Question: But, apart from pressuring Russia itself, the West actively uses information and psychological pressure against Russians. What is its final aim?
Nikolai Patrushev: The West is attempting to undermine the internal unity of our country and people, demoralise citizens, and make them feel inferior. Numerous research institutes in the United States and Europe are working hard to create the most outlandish pseudo-scientific theories. They are trying to prove that it is necessary to reformat the Russian mindsets and compel Russians to repent before fellow citizens from other ethnic groups and faiths, who allegedly languish under what they call “imperial yoke.”
Several US foundations at once are trying to sell to the Washington elite their research papers entitled “Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture,” which were hastily written on orders from the Department of State and the Department of Defence. The papers argue that the focus should be on creating and maintaining instability in states neighbouring on Russia and on an information war that includes support for the “fifth column” and encouragement of internal separatism inside Russia.
The Soros organisations alone contribute $800 million a year for creating fake videos, stage-managed photos, and forgeries for the social media. (George Soros, incidentally, betrayed his fellow Jews to the Nazis in Hungary during World War II.)
The West is seeking to destroy the foundations of Russian identity and the identity of members of other ethnic groups in Russia. It is bending over backwards to impose on us novelties like gender diversity or historical revisionism, which we have no use for.
Question: Can we stand up to this cultural aggression?
Nikolai Patrushev: Russia’s opponents are accustomed to abusing our kindness and generosity. Nurtured by the West, advocates of anti-Russian ideas make propaganda for liberalism and reject the notions of homeland and love for one’s country, thus playing into the hands of the enemy. As for us, we should do whatever we can to protect our national interests, our culture and history, and look to the future of this nation. The Western propaganda machine falters when it runs into honour, nobleness, firmness of spirit, and the indomitable morality characteristic of our people. We must support and strengthen in every way the traditional moral values, while not forgetting to debunk the Russo phobic pseudo-scientific theories that become the basis for aggressive anti-Russia actions.
Question: Let’s talk about a different kind of pressure. Do you think the assumption that the West is using climate issues as a cover to take control of Russia’s natural resources is credible?
Nikolai Patrushev: Without mincing the words, speaking from bully pulpits of international organisations, the United States and its European clients are promoting the idea that all countries around the world are eligible to use Russia’s water resources. They brazenly juggle the facts to show that fresh water reserves in Russia are allegedly incommensurately larger than our country’s population and economic activity. Biased Western researchers and politicians state dismissively that only the collective West can dispose of the world’s natural resources and that Russia supposedly got them unfairly. These statements reveal the West’s total reliance on Russia’s natural resources.
Question: Recently, Germany closed down its last three nuclear plants, thus giving up on nuclear energy. What do you think Berlin is counting on?
Nikolai Patrushev: In its efforts to cut down on generating capacity, the German leadership is depriving the national economy of energy-intensive production facilities. Renewable energy sources, which European officials are counting on, are unable to completely replace the energy generated by nuclear power plants. Nuclear power is more than a reliable source of electric power. It is also one of the most environmentally friendly power generation methods.
Over the past 20 years, Europe has lost a quarter of its forests due to increased harvesting since 60 percent of renewable energy comes from biomass, almost half of which comes from forests. Should this pace remain unchanged, Europe will eventually be left without forests altogether.
With the environmental agenda as their top priority, the EU officials flat-out ignore the arguments provided by professional environmentalists about the benefits of cooperating with Russia in the energy sector.
Question: The reliability of alternative energy sources is relative. For example, the eruption of the Shiveluch Volcano in Kamchatka disabled solar panels. Shiveluch is by far not Vesuvius or Yellowstone in America, which is considered the world’s most dangerous dormant volcano?
Nikolai Patrushev: Remember the Yellowstone Volcano? If it wakes up, it will cause a disaster of unprecedented proportions. It is capable of eruptions that are thousands of times more devastating than humankind has ever known. According to observations, the volcano’s activity has been increasing over the years, and the magma is fast approaching the surface of the Earth. The number of earthquakes in the surrounding caldera is also up at about 2,000 per year.
The existing studies made it possible to simulate the course of the potential eruption and its fallout. It is believed life in North America will become extinct. The ensuing eruptions of other volcanoes, as well as earthquakes, tsunamis and acid rains will affect most of the world’s population. However, this is something that worries only the people of America, not its politicians.
Volcano studies should be expanded if we want to protect the people and economic infrastructure from the devastating impact of volcano eruptions. The Western countries are obsessed with ratcheting up the sanctions pressure in order to fence themselves off Russia at a time where they would be better off continuing cooperation with us in research, including geology. Research and scientific achievements in the interests of progress and preserving human lives should be the global commons.
At the same time, I would like to wish the US authorities, with Yellowstone on their hands, to be mindful of an English proverb that runs as follows, “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” Washington, which decides on the future of other countries and peoples, should not forget that ancient Romans in Pompeii were quite well off, too, and were not strangers to depravity.
By the way, some people in America argue that Eastern Europe and Siberia will be two safest places on Earth in case of an eruption. Apparently, this explains why the Anglo-Saxon elites are so eager to take possession of that very Heartland.
Question: Humanitarian catastrophes and their imminence should encourage countries to seek mutual understanding rather than wage conflicts. And yet, the world’s experience in countering COVID has shown otherwise. If a new challenge on a similar scale emerges, do you believe we will see another bout of disconnection between countries? Or perhaps people view the situation differently rather than their governments?
Nikolai Patrushev: One should not forget that in the United States and other unfriendly countries, there are plenty of people who have a positive view of Russia. Decent Americans and Europeans might as well ignore Washington’s anti-Russia propaganda, come to this country and become Russian citizens provided that they comply with Russian law and respect our culture.
By the way, the number of people who wish to permanently reside in Russia is growing. The majority of these people are deeply religious Christians with moral values close to those that Russia is protecting but that were long trampled in the United States.
For reference, in the past year, the number of US citizens who obtained passports of other countries has tripled. The myth about the proverbial American dream has been dispelled. The United States has literally fallen back into the Middle Ages. US officials are silently watching radicals commit atrocities and force people to worship BLM activists. The aggravating persecution of media representatives has turned into a witch hunt. There have been more than 300 attacks on journalists in the US over the past two years. Dozens of journalists have been arrested and convicted for simply performing their professional duties and reporting on issues about which officials prefer to stay silent.
The intra-political turbulence in the US is rising in scale, getting out of control due to irreconcilable disagreements within the elite circles, corporations and government structures.
Question: This turbulence has been noted both inside the United States and beyond, occurring amidst natural disasters and incessant economic crises. In your opinion, why in these conditions does the United States need Ukraine?
Nikolai Patrushev: Americans need Ukraine only for unrestrained exploitation of its natural resources without its historical population. By following this neo-Nazi course, Washington has already turned it into a territory that millions are fleeing from, looking for protection from socioeconomic problems and pro-fascist oppression. Thirty years of the commotion organised by Washington in Ukraine have reduced the Ukrainian population by half. And now the White House is ready to continue the war with Russia until the last Ukrainian but preserving Ukraine as a state is not part of its plan.
Source: Here