A longtime former Vladimir Putin strategist, billed as the "inventor of Putinism," gave his first interview since the widescale invasion of Ukraine, saying Russia expansionism knows no borders.
"I built an official ideology based on the concept of the 'Russian world,' which already existed in philosophical circles: The Russian world has no borders," Vladislav Sourkov, called the "wizard of the Kremlin" told French newspaper L'Express in an exclusive interview last month, which was republished this week in Danish newspaper Politiken. "The Russian world is everywhere there is Russian influence, in one form or another: cultural, informational, military, economic, ideological or humanitarian.
"In other words, it is everywhere. The extent of our influence varies greatly from region to region, but it is never zero. So we will spread out in all directions, as far as God wills and as strong as we are.
"The important thing is not to get carried away and not to take on too big a piece."
That latter point was long pointed to in critiques of former President Joe Biden before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began Feb. 24, 2022, when he suggested just weeks prior that taking a small piece of Ukraine would not be met with accountability.
"Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does," Biden said. "It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we end of having to fight about to do and not to do, etc."
Now living a "private life," the longtime strategist "who 'made' Vladimir Putin" – as the L'Express wrote – suggested the intent to take pieces at time, blaming the West for having "colonized" and spun an unwitting Ukraine against Russia.
"It is Europe that has ignored the subjectivity of the Ukrainian people by supporting two coups d'état in Kiev," Sourkov said. "In 2014, for example, more than half of Ukrainians spoke Russian on a daily basis, both at work and at home. Less than half of them supported integration into the European Union, and even fewer wanted to join NATO.
"Against the will of the Ukrainian people, or in any case against the will of the majority of them, the West is trying to force Ukraine into submission, without anyone really understanding why. Even as we speak, European weapons, some of them French, are being used against my country to support the puppet regime in Kiev, which is based not on the majority of the Ukrainian people but on its anti-Russian and pro-Western minority.
"This is a continuation of Western attempts to colonize Ukraine by force."
But, now the West has effectively divided Ukraine into anti-Russia portions, something Russia will seek to exploit in other regions of Ukraine that holds less animus to Russia, effectively dividing it, according to Sourkov.
"Ukraine is an artificial political entity into which at least three very different regions have been forced: the South and East, Russian; the Centre, Russian-non-Russian (sic); and the West, anti-Russian," he said. "They couldn't get along and never have.
"The war in Ukraine will separate the Russians and the anti-Russians or, to paraphrase the Gospel, the sheep and the goats.
"The anti-Russians will not grow up. But it will be confined to its historical territory and will stop spreading across Russian soil. Perhaps one day Ukraine will be a real state, but only within its natural borders, and therefore much smaller."
As far as the designs to advance past Ukraine and into the Baltics or other parts of Europe, Sourkov suggested there will be a point of "mutual understanding and cooperation."
"In the future, the West will become more authoritarian and Russia less so," he said. "The proportions of freedom and discipline in our political systems will converge. This may not happen overnight, and it will be achieved at the cost of conflict and tragedy, but it is certain that the United States, Europe, and Russia will achieve a high degree of mutual understanding and cooperation.
"It is a question of the survival of the great Nordic civilization, to which the Russian, European, and American cultures belong, against a background of almost unbearable demographic pressure from the South."
Ultimately, liberal globalists are losing the political debate to conservatism and traditionalists, according to Sourkov.
"I respect the cultural particularities of all peoples, even when they seem incongruous to me," he said. "If liberal democracy is a peculiarity of the political culture of a country or group of countries, that is their absolute right.
"Similarly, if liberal democracy does not suit Russia, that is our right.
'"Liberalism and liberal democracy are not obsolete. What is happening to them at the moment is merely a crisis, they are not dying. But the idea that they are universal and intrinsically superior to other systems is dead."
While the liberal media suggests President Donald Trump is adopting Putin's thinking in helping reorganize the world order, Sourkov says Trump is no ally to Russia.
"Trump doesn't strike me as someone who wants to make allies," he said."