Civilization Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Will there be a new war in southeastern Ukraine? Who is behind the President of the United States? Why can many of our officials be called ideological agents of influence? The director of RISS, retired Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov, answers these and other questions of "AN", habitually weighing every word.

On the northern outskirts of Moscow, under the reliable protection of soldiers of the internal troops, a former secret institution of the Foreign Intelligence Service lurked. Now on the gable of the visor there are golden letters - the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies. But the peaceful name of the initiates does not bother - more than two hundred employees forge an analytical shield of the homeland here.

Opponents on the same field

You had a serious "roof" - SVR. Why was it suddenly declassified?

- We really were a closed institution of foreign intelligence, specializing in the analysis of available information on the far and near abroad. That is, on information that is needed not only by intelligence, but also by the structures that determine the country's foreign policy. Oddly enough, there were no such serious analytical centers in the Russian presidential administration. Although there were a lot of "institutions" in which there is only a director, a secretary and the director's wife as an analyst. The AP did not have enough serious specialists, and intelligence had to share.

Today our founder is the President of Russia, and all state research assignments are signed by the head of the administration, Sergei Ivanov.

How popular is your analytics? And then we are a country of paper, everyone writes, writes, but there is an influence on the final result?

- Sometimes we see actions that resonate with our analytical notes. Sometimes it is amazing that you come up with certain ideas, and this becomes a trend in Russian public opinion. It can be seen that many directions are simply in the air.

In the United States, the Stratfor think tank and the RAND Corporation strategic research center are doing something similar. Which one of you is "cooler"?

- When, after moving to the Presidential Administration in April 2009, we made a new charter of the institute, then as a wish we were told that we should take an example from them. Then I thought: "If you finance us like Stratfor or RAND Corporation are financed, then we will plug all these foreign analytical companies in the belt." After all, Russian analysts are the most powerful in the world. Moreover, regional specialists, who have more "fresh", open-minded brains. I can speak about this with confidence, after all, 33 years of analytical work, first in the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, and then in the Foreign Intelligence Service.

NGOs, NGOs - where did you take us?

As you know, RAND Corporation developed an ATO plan for Ukraine in the southeast of the country. Has your institute provided information on Ukraine, in particular on Crimea?

- Certainly. In principle, only two institutes worked in Ukraine: RISS and the Institute of the CIS Countries Konstantin Zatulin. From the very beginning of our activity, we wrote analytical notes on the growth of anti-Russian sentiments in mainland Ukraine and the strengthening of pro-Russian ones in Crimea. We analyzed the activities of the Ukrainian authorities. But they did not give alarm information - everything was gone, but rather increased attention to the growing problem.

They proposed to significantly strengthen the work of pro-Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to strengthen, as they say now, the pressure of the "soft power" policy.

With an ambassador like Zurabov, no enemies are needed

- The work of any embassy and ambassador is constrained by many restrictions. A step to the left, a step to the right is a scandal. Plus, the country is in general trouble with professional personnel. And not only in the diplomatic field. Somehow we have become exhausted - there are very few strong people with a core left in the civil service.

The role of NGOs is difficult to overestimate. A striking example is the color revolutions that are fueled by foreign, primarily American, non-governmental organizations. This was the case in Ukraine as well. Unfortunately, virtually no attention was paid to the creation and support of such organizations that would act in our interests. And if they worked, they would replace ten embassies and ten even very smart ambassadors. Now the situation has begun to change after the president's direct instructions. God grant that subordinates do not blur this development.

How, in your opinion, will the events develop in Novorossiya in spring and summer? Will there be a new military campaign?

- Alas, the probability is very high. A year ago, the idea of federalizing Ukraine worked. But now Kiev only needs a war. Only a unitary state. For several reasons. The main thing is that ideologically anti-Russian people who are not just subordinate to Washington, but literally are on the maintenance of those forces that are hiding behind the US government, stood at the head of the country.

And what does this notorious "world government" need?

“It’s easier to say that they don’t need: they don’t need a federal Ukraine, it will be a poorly controlled territory. It is impossible to place your military bases, a new echelon of missile defense on it. And there are such plans. From Luhansk or Kharkov, tactical cruise missiles reach the Trans-Urals, where our main nuclear deterrent forces are located. And with a 100% probability they will be able to hit silo-based and mobile-based ballistic missiles on a take-off trajectory. Now this area is inaccessible to them neither from Poland, nor from Turkey, nor from Southeast Asia. This is the main goal. Therefore, the United States will fight for Donbass to the last Ukrainian.

So it's not about the shale gas deposits found in this area?

- The main strategic task is a unitary Ukraine under their full control to fight Russia. Shale gas or arable land is just a nice bonus. Concurrent winnings. Plus a serious blow to our defense industry due to the severing of ties between the defense industry complex of Ukraine and Russia. This has already been done.

We were outplayed: the "son of a bitch" Yanukovych had to be evacuated with the help of special forces, and Washington put its "sons of bitch" in?

- From a military-strategic point of view, of course, we outplayed. Russia has "compensation" - Crimea. There is "compensation" - the resistance of the inhabitants of the south-east of Ukraine. But the enemy has already received a huge territory, which was part of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire.

What will we see in Ukraine this year?

- The process of half-life or even complete decay. Many have just calmed down in the face of real Nazism. But people who understand that Ukraine and Russia are tightly connected have not yet said their word. Not in Odessa, not in Kharkov, not in Zaporozhye, not in Chernigov. Silence is not forever. And the boiler lid will inevitably rip off.

And how will relations between Novorossia and the rest of Ukraine develop?

- There is an unlikely scenario for Transnistria. But I don't believe in him - the territory of the DPR and LPR is much larger, millions of people have already been drawn into this war. While Russia can still persuade the leaders of the militia for a temporary respite and a truce. But just for the "temporary". There is no talk of any entry of New Russia into Ukraine. The people of the southeast do not want to be Ukrainians.

If our country has fallen into global isolation due to the annexation of Crimea, why not go all-in in the southeast? How much can you be hypocritical?

- Va-bank, in my opinion, to go early. We underestimate the awareness of our president, who knows that certain processes are underway in Europe, closed from prying eyes. They give hope that while we can defend our interests by other methods and means.

Front without front line

In the information flow related to Ukraine, we forget about the explosive growth of religious extremism in Central Asia …

- This is an extremely dangerous tendency for our country. A very difficult situation in Tajikistan. The situation in Kyrgyzstan is unstable. But the direction of the first strike could be Turkmenistan, as “AN” wrote. We somehow forget about it a little, due to the fact that Ashgabat keeps itself apart. But this "mansion" may collapse first. Will they have enough strength to fight back on their own? Or we will have to intervene in a country that keeps a fairly distant distance from us. So the direction is difficult.

And not only in connection with the penetration of Islamic State militants into the region. According to the latest data, the US and NATO are not going to leave Afghanistan, but keep their bases there. From a military point of view, the five or ten thousand soldiers that remain can be deployed in a 50-100 thousand group within a month.

This is part of the general plan of encirclement and pressure on Russia, which is being carried out by the hands of the United States with the aim of overthrowing President Vladimir Putin and splitting the country. An ordinary layman may, of course, not believe this, but people with a large amount of information know this very well.

On what boundaries will the split take place?

- In the beginning, it is planned to simply chop off what “lies badly”. It doesn't matter what breaks away: Kaliningrad, the North Caucasus or the Far East. This will detonate the process, which can be incremental. This idea is not propaganda, but real. Such pressure from the west (Ukraine) and the south (Central Asia) will only grow. They try to slip through the western gate, but they also try the southern ones.

Where is the most dangerous strategic direction for us?

- The southern direction is very dangerous. But there are still buffer states - the former Central Asian Soviet republics. And in the west, the war is already on the border. In fact, on our territory.

Now there is not a massacre of Ukrainians and Russians, but a war of world systems. Some believe that they are "tse Europe", while others - Russia. After all, our country is not just a territory, it is a separate huge civilization that has brought its own view of the world order to the whole world. First of all, of course, the Russian Empire as an example of Eastern Orthodox civilization. The Bolsheviks destroyed it, but gave out a new civilizational idea. Now we have come close to the third. And we will see this within 5-6 years.

What will it be?

- I think it will be a good symbiosis of the previous ones. And our "sworn colleagues" are well aware of this. Therefore, the attack began from all sides.

That is, the joint Russian-American struggle against terrorism, in particular, with ISIS, is a fiction?

- Certainly. America creates terrorists, feeds, trains, then commands the whole pack: "fas". Maybe one "mad dog" from this pack will be helped to shoot, but the rest will be set even more actively.

Satan reigns there

Leonid Petrovich, you think that the United States and American presidents are just a tool. Who then builds the policy?

- There are communities of some people practically unknown to society who do not just put American presidents, but determine the rules for the whole “Great Game”. These are, in particular, transnational financial corporations. But they are not the only ones.

Now there is a reformatting of the financial and economic system of the world. This is an attempt to rethink the entire structure of capitalism without abandoning it. Foreign policy is changing dramatically. The United States suddenly effectively abandoned Israel, its main ally in the Middle East, in order to improve relations with Iran. Why is Tehran now more needed and more important than Tel Aviv? Because he is part of the encirclement belt of Russia. These secret forces set the task of eliminating our country as a serious player in the world arena. After all, Russia is a civilizational alternative to the entire united West.

Moreover, there is an explosive growth of anti-American sentiments in the world. Hungary, where the conservative right-wing forces are in power, and the Greek leftists - diametrically opposed forces - have actually united and "kicked up" against the US dictatorship on the Old Continent. There is someone to "kick up" in Italy, Austria, France and so on. If Russia can stand it now, then processes will go on in Europe that are disadvantageous to the forces claiming world domination. And they understand this very well.

Some European leaders are already crying that the US has literally imposed sanctions on them. Europe can break out of "friendly" American embrace?

- Never. America holds it tightly on several chains: the Fed's printing press, the threat of color revolutions and the physical elimination of unwanted politicians.

Do you go too far with regard to physical elimination?

- Not at all. The US Central Intelligence Agency is not intelligence even in terms of the level of tasks it faces. PGU KGB or SVR RF - classic intelligence: collecting information and reporting to the country's leadership. At the CIA, these traditional intelligence tags are at the bottom of the task list. The main ones are the elimination, including the physical, of political figures and the organization of coups. And they do it in real time.

After the sinking of the submarine "Kursk" from Romania, CIA Director George Tenet flew to us. I was instructed to meet him at the airport. Tenet did not leave the plane for a long time, but the ramp was open, and it was possible to look inside his "Hercules". It was a flying command post, a computer operations center, fully packed with hardware and communications systems, that could monitor and simulate the situation around the world. Accompanying delegation - twenty people. We have flown and are flying by regular flights in the composition of 2-5 people. Feel the difference, as they say.

By the way, about intelligence. They again began to talk about the idea of restoring a single Russian intelligence service by combining the SVR and the FSB. Your attitude?

- Extremely negative. If we combine two special services - foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, then we will create one from two sources of information for the country's top leadership. Then the person who sits on this "source of information" becomes a monopolist. And he can manipulate her in order to achieve some goal. In the KGB of the USSR, such manipulations with information were noticeable even to Captain Reshetnikov. For a president, tsar, or prime minister - whatever you call the top official - it is beneficial to have several independent intelligence sources. Otherwise, he becomes hostage to a specific head of the structure or the structure itself. It is very dangerous.

The authors of this idea think that we are being strengthened by unification, and we are creating threats to ourselves.

Where is the landing?

Let's move on from the world conspiracy theories "to our rams." How to distinguish an official who does not know what he is doing from an agent of influence who does deliberately?

- There are not so many real agents of influence of a serious level in the world as is commonly believed. The adoption or non-adoption of serious strategic decisions not in the interests of their country is mainly initiated, shall we say, by ideological agents. These are our officials who ended up in the domestic high-ranking chair, but they are in the West in spirit. They do not need to be recruited or ordered. For these people, everything that is done “there” is the highest achievements of civilization. And what is here is "unwashed Russia." They do not associate the future of their children with the country, who are sent to study abroad. And this is a more serious indicator than accounts in Western banks. Such "comrades" do not like Russia from the bottom of their hearts, the "development" of which they are leading.

How exactly did you paint a portrait of some of our ministers. How will we go through 2015 with them?

- The year, with or without them, will be difficult. Most likely, the next one will not be any easier. But then the confident march of the new Russia will begin.