Karaganov’s Candid Assessment Of Europe Shows The World What Russian Hardliners Think

Observers, especially Western officials, should be aware of their views since one of their own might replace Putin someday.

RT shared a recent interview that top Russian expert Sergey Karaganov, who’s (in)famous for lobbying Putin to nuke Europe, gave to Russia 24. As was explained here earlier in the year, Putin prefers to follow the advice of Karganov’s de facto ideological rival Timofei Bordachev, who advocates for reaching a deal with the West instead of destroying it at the risk of World War III. Nevertheless, Karaganov’s candid assessment of Europe shows the world what Russian hardliners think, which is informative.

He predictably reiterated his call for Russia to nuke Europe in order to avert what he’s convinced will inevitably be a hot war between them that risks becoming a major nuclear one if it’s not prevented. To that end, he called on Putin to appoint a commander-in-chief in the theater of operations against Europe, who’ll first attack it with conventional arms and then escalate to a limited nuclear war if it doesn’t surrender. In his words, “Forget the nonsense that a nuclear war cannot be won, it can be won.”

According to Karaganov, “We have forgotten that Europe is the embodiment of all humanity’s greatest evils: colonialism, racism, the most vile ideologies, and mass genocides across the globe. Not only the genocide of Jews and Russians, Soviets, but in Africa, and in India, and all over the world, peoples and entire continents were destroyed. So, we must understand that this is a plague from which we must isolate ourselves as far as possible. And if we cannot isolate ourselves, it must be destroyed.”

He elaborated that “now the Europeans are being turned into German fascists. That is why we need to stop them before they, having gone wild, plunge into a major, truly major war. They are waging war against us…Their elites are turning themselves into subhumans. Therefore, we must treat them accordingly.” On that topic, Karaganov also suggested that some of his fellow Russians be treated very harshly as well, particularly those who he believes are operating under European influence.

“Under the current circumstances, pro-European sentiment is a sign of mental weakness, moral corruption and treason. It is ‘Vlasovism’. We must treat people who are trying to negotiate with Europe once again in precisely this way. They must be driven out, by gentle means where possible, from our minds and from our ranks. And if gentle means fail, then harsh measures will have to be applied.” This seems to be a swipe at Kirill Dmitriev, who’s negotiating with the US, but with Putin’s approval.

Be that as it may, it would be wrong to describe Karaganov as “anti-Putin” since they’re friends and he even moderated the Q&A session with him at 2024’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. A much more accurate description is therefore that he’s a constructive critic, but he won’t directly criticize Putin due to his patriotic, reasonable concern that it could be exploited by adversarial forces. For that reason, he only makes indirect criticisms, such as his implied swipe against Putin’s envoy Dmitriev.

Karaganov is the leader of Russia’s hardliner faction, so his views should be considered as reflecting theirs. Observers, especially Western officials, should be aware of them since one of their own might replace Putin someday. That would then obviously make it much more difficult to reach a deal with Russia over Ukraine if the special operation isn’t over by then. They should thus compromise with Russia now while Putin is still at the helm instead of risk a no-deal scenario if a hardliner replaces him.