The efforts are part of Washington’s desperation to retain hegemony, Nikolay Patrushev has claimed
Nikolai Patrushev © Sputnik / Victor Tolochko
The US and its allies are seeking to preserve their power by dismantling Russia, with Western think tanks busy formulating plans to that effect, the secretary of Moscow’s Security Council has claimed.
In an interview published by the Izvestia newspaper on Wednesday, Nikolay Patrushev said the West was attempting to influence the global order through “the destruction of Russia or its weakening to the level of a third-rate country under foreign management.”
He cited a book published last year and titled ‘Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture’ as an example of academic work which suggests ways of achieving that goal for the elites in Washington.
The purported plan is to “support instability in nations neighboring Russia” and to conduct information warfare to “fan internal separatism,” Patrushev added.
The book was written by Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at conservative Washington-based think tank The Jamestown Foundation. The author made the case for the dissolution of Russia, claiming it had failed to become “a nation state, a civic state or a stable imperial state.”
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Bugajski cited a range of factors that supposedly work against Russia, including a lack of economic growth, inequality, distrust in government institutions, the alienation of the population from the ruling elites, and “disbelief in official propaganda.”
The academic is a veteran critic of Moscow who has consulted the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development, and according to his bio taught a course at the Foreign Service Institute at the State Department.
Patrushev claimed that the West is seeking to weaken Russian sovereignty to gain access to its natural resources and exploit them. However, Moscow’s adversaries underestimate “the strength of our nation and the will of the Russian people to be independent,” the security official insisted.
He further alleged that Russia’s opponents are aiming to undermine the foundations of its national identity by promoting harmful ideas such as gender diversity and by attempting to revise history.
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Patrushev argued that this policy actually alienates those in the West who value tradition and are not susceptible to anti-Russian propaganda. He suggested that these people are welcome to move to Russia and become citizens, as long as they respect local laws and culture.
