The self-proclaimed architect of “Putinism” and the “Novorossiya project” told L’Express that he sees no limits to the expansion of Russian influence in all directions.
by Kyiv Post
In his first major interview since he was sacked by the Kremlin in 2020 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladislav Surkov, the “backroom ideologist” credited with many of President Vladimir Putin’spolitical ideas and the concept of “Novorossiya,” gave his take on Moscow’s war against Ukraine to the French media outlet L’Express.
Surkov said Russia’s strategic objectives remain unchanged. It seeks the “military… and diplomatic crushing of Ukraine” and the “division of this artificial quasi-state into its natural fragments.
“We need a tsar. Periods without a tsar always end in disaster for us.”
Asked if he thought that contrary to that aim the war with Russia had strengthened the Ukrainian state and reinforced an “anti-Russian” outlook even among Russian-speaking Ukrainians, Surkov maintained his view that Ukraine was an artificial entity that had pushed at least three very different ethnic groups together and was destined to fail.
Voice of Ukraine 