Russia was left with no choice

Russia Has Been Left with No Choice

Russia will use nuclear weapons if the Europeans do not realize their failure and "crawl away," believes Sergey Karaganov, Academic Supervisor of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE). An apocalyptic scenario for the Old World from the most authoritative expert — in an interview with Rosbalt.

— Sergey Alexandrovich, we see how the West's position in the new world is changing. The failure in Ukraine, the failure in Iran — the clearest confirmation that the West is losing weight. Today, even the inhabitants of African countries are far from being the slaves they were accustomed to being considered in the West. What is happening?

— A world war is underway. The West has unleashed a semi-soft world war. First, the Americans played at war in Ukraine, then they ceded it to the Europeans. Then the Americans and the Israelis started an operation against Iran and not only, by the way, against Iran — their goal was to destabilize the entire Greater Middle East and South Asia. This process is very long. Everyone in the West understands this. The Americans act coldly and calculatedly, and we do not approve of this, but we are embarrassed to say that the Americans have simply run amok and are acting like bandits under the leadership of the president.

And the Europeans, simply because of all their failures occurring everywhere, are playing at war. Given that two generations of Europeans are already uneducated, and democracy selects the worst, the quality of the elite has sharply deteriorated. It is a dangerous story. The situation is worsening. But the keys are in Russia's hands.

— What do you mean?

— We have warned the Americans firmly enough. After all, even under Biden, although they supplied weapons and money to Ukraine, they have already begun to crawl away. The Europeans have not. I hope that we will not have to punish the Europeans in such a way that they finally come to their senses.

On the other hand, I see that our president, our foreign minister, have begun to say very serious things that we all have not even fully understood yet. They said that if a war with Europe begins, it will be very short. This means that a signal has been given at the highest level: we will strike with nuclear weapons. I hope that after this, a sobering up will begin for the Europeans.

— So far, they are constantly trying to scare us: first Finland is ready to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory, then Latvia. How should we react to these statements?

— This is just talk. But if nuclear weapons are deployed in Finland or somewhere else, I think it is Russia's duty to destroy these nuclear weapons along with the countries that will attempt to deploy them. The Europeans and the Balts must be stopped.

— If they decide to do so, will this completely untie our hands?

— Yes. But this is a strong decision. It is very difficult to make. And the fact that both the president and the foreign minister have started saying that if a war begins, it will be very short, seems to me to be a very good step forward. Next, we need to pull our nuclear forces closer to the borders of Europe, change our nuclear doctrine even further so that it clearly states that any clash with a group of countries that surpass us in demographic, economic, and military potential requires Russia's immediate use of nuclear weapons. And we need to act more decisively in Ukraine (and we started this two months ago, with some delay).

— Can we state that the collective West has weakened significantly right now, although this surely began even before the SMO?

— The West has weakened significantly, especially Europe, economically, morally, physically — they are losing everything. The problem is that Europe, for example, is looking for a way out of its miserable situation in militarization. To revive the economy, they want to revive their military-industrial complex. This cornered dog wants to sharpen its teeth. And we will be ready to start shooting the dogs too.

— Europeans believe that militarization is also almost the only opportunity to regain their influence. Is that so? Or is it another, perhaps even fatal, mistake?

— Militarization is, of course, not a way out for Europe. We just need to understand ourselves that our European century (thanks to Peter the Great for that) should have ended a century and a half ago. Now our policy towards Europe is tough containment, maximum fencing off. A sanitary cordon must be set up for Europe: surround it with weapons, and if they make a real move, resolutely proceed to destroy several countries.

— Russia is one thing, but will the less prepared countries of the Global South, the world majority, have enough strength, resources, and courage to fight back and protect the new world order, free from Western hegemony, and prevent a repetition of the history of colonization?

— The world is indeed moving towards greater freedom. The only thing is, we have not fully acknowledged that we were the ones who gave freedom to the countries of Africa. We knocked the foundations of the West's dominance in economy, politics, and military superiority from under them. That is why the West is crumbling. But, yes, we must make sure that, as it crumbles, the West does not drag the rest of the world down with it.

— Do you think they will try to regain their superiority?

— The Americans — yes, they are trying to do something, but they are burning everything down in the territory where they used to be. To repeat, they set fire to a war in Europe, they set fire to a big war in the Middle East, they feed these wars. Therefore, we need to escort them out as calmly and restrainedly as possible, since some elements of cooperation are possible.

But the Europeans must be tightly contained and we must be ready to punish them. After all, we must remember that Europe is the breeding ground of all human misfortunes: wars, genocide, nationalism, and all the worst things.

But we also face a huge, very difficult problem — to realize that calling oneself a European nowadays is morally shameful and intellectually foolish.

— At the same time, experts cannot agree on what the world will be like: bipolar, tripolar? Frankly, multipolarity still raises doubts: if even two or three countries cannot find a common language, achieving unity among dozens of countries is even more difficult.

— The world will be very diverse. If America wants a big war, we will win this war, and the world will be diverse, cultural, and multicolored. I like this coming world very much. Among other things, this is happening because we freed the world from the Western yoke.

— And Russia's place in this diverse, multicolored world in 10-20 years?

— We will live magnificently, because we have finally started focusing on ourselves, finally completed our European voyage. We need to complete it once and for all and understand that we are not Europeans, that being a European is shameful. We need to develop ourselves and understand that the spirituality close to us is largely in the South — Palestine, Byzantium, the Muslim world, the Buddhist world. We need to understand that our political system came from the East and that the future is in the East.

If we understand this, we will live very well, because our resources and our strength are needed all over the world. We need to defeat Ukraine, which equals Europe, faster. And we need to develop ourselves first and foremost.

— I have heard the opinion from many experts that in politics, you cannot trust anyone at all. And even in our trusting relationship with China, by no means everyone believes, and many expect a catch from Beijing. Needless to say about the Europeans and Americans. And yet, can we trust anyone at all in the modern world?

— We have a fairly trusting relationship with the Chinese, common interests. We have resolved all disputed issues. We must simply understand that Russia is a great Eurasian civilization — our future is there. And we can only trust our armed forces.