Renowned Russian Political Analyst Sergey Karaganov On The New Russia-West Ideological Struggle

MEMRI is now translating Russian newspaper and magazine articles. This one is particularly interesting.

On April 21, 2016, the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia published an article by Russian political analyst Sergey Karaganov;[1] in it, Karaganov states that the disintegration of the Soviet Union created the illusion that the era of “ideologies and ideological struggle was over.” However, he adds, the end of the Cold War marked a further deterioration of relations between Russia and the West.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Karaganov writes, Russians were attracted by Western ideals: “Most of the Soviet elite and people, weary of the scarcity and lack of freedom of the era of real socialism, yearned to be in Europe.” He adds that Russians were eager to join Europe, its thinkers, Christianity, and traditional values, from which they had been separated for 70 years under the Soviet regime. However, the post-Cold War Europe gradually lost its attraction for the Russian political class, as it started to support NATO’s expansion eastwards and European Union policies that did not involve Moscow as an equal partner; additionally, the EU never seriously considered Russia’s project to create a common economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok.[2]

On Europe’s part, there was a definite fear that Russia was too big an entity to be truly integrated – a fear supported by the belief that integrating Russia into Europe would lead to the disintegration of Europe. However, according to Karaganov, the idea that eventually prevailed was that “the West was using Russia’s weakness to eradicate its centuries-old gains and make it even weaker.”

Karaganov explains that at this stage, Russia wants to “reclaim its own self” and adds that it could offer the world more attractive values than the West can. He notes that in the Lisbon Treaty, on reform in European integration and cooperation, which came into force on December 1, 2009, the EU included “only” the values of pragmatism, consumerism, democracy, human rights, and law, and added: “Essentially, these values are quite attractive, but may provoke a degradation of both humans and their values if detached from a person’s customary devotion to some higher purpose.” In contrast, Russia, he says, emphasizes as main values “national dignity” and “courage” – which, he adds, are no longer part of Europe’s ideals because they are “perceived as part of [Europe’s] dangerous past – from the wars [it] unleashed and lost.” Thus, he says, fear of its own past has attracted Europe to concepts such as “nonviolence” and “pacifism,” which he considers completely inadequate for facing the challenges of the modern world. Pursing ideals such as pacifism will lead Europe into trouble, he says, as one result of it, mass migration, can deeply damage the West. Therefore, Karaganov suggests, Europe must, in order to survive, begin to pursue “a harsher and more right-wing policy” and “give up some of its democratic freedoms for the sake of order and security.”

Russia is different from Europe and proud of it, Karaganov explains. He notes, for example, that Russia is ready to use force to protect its sovereignty and values, while Europe is not. Russia supports Christianity and is ready to defend Christians around the world, while the EU has lost its faith and failed to even mention its Christian roots in the Lisbon Treaty. This is ironic, because the Soviet Union was criticized by the West for its “godless and amoral communism,” he says, and asks, “Can one trust those [i.e. the West] who espouse godless ‘democratism’ and liberalism?” Russia does not need to “export” its ideology, he notes, since this is already “happening de facto” as the Russian approach to the world is becoming more attractive to public opinion. The West, he says, has tried to export “democratism” in an “aggressive manner,” so there is now a need for the “non-Western” Russian policy, in order to stop the West’s geopolitical expansion.

This view of Europe and the West is shared by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, during his annual live Q&A session on the Direct Line program on April 14, 2016, criticized European liberalism and freedom of movement in the 26-nation border-free European Schengen Area.[3] He said: “Europe is facing serious challenges, and you probably feel safer in Siberia than, say, in Paris or Brussels. I say this without any irony, on the contrary, I am totally serious, giving due credit to our colleagues, who are making attempts to effectively tackle terrorism amidst the complicated conditions of European liberalism. The freedom of movement, the Schengen Area, and many other things related to today’s freedoms are used effectively by terrorists, and it is quite difficult to combat this under [European] present laws.”[4]

The following are excerpts from an English translation of Karaganov’s article published on the website of the Russian foreign affairs journal Russia in Global Affairs:[5]

Read the whole thing here