Sergey Mironov, Chairman of the A Just Russia – For Truth Party and State Duma deputy, is an experienced politician.
He undertook critical duties in the state, especially the Presidency of the Federal Council of the Russian Federation (2001-2011), which came after the President and the Prime Minister in the Russian state protocol.
I asked Mironov questions about Türkiye-Russia relations, the course of the war in Ukraine, Russia-China relations, his view of Europe and PMC Wagner’s place in Russian politics. I got interesting answers.
How do you evaluate relations between Türkiye and Russia?
Among all NATO members, Türkiye is the country Russia has the best relations with.
Moreover, if national pragmatism had guided all the NATO members, as it does in Ankara this would be great and helpful.
The main fact what we observe in President Erdogan is that he does hate Russia in anyway. He favors his national interests in the relations with Russia and of course with other countries. We really value this Turkish approach.
So, don’t you think that Türkiye’s membership on NATO is a problem for Russia?
No, it is not a problem for Russia.
As I told you, if other members of NATO followed some kind independent foreign policy like Türkiye does, there could be a different situation in the world.
Do you think a strategic alliance between Türkiye and Russia is possible in areas such as Syria, Libya, the Caucasus region and the Eastern Mediterranean? If yes, on what strategic basis?
Strategic alliances usually mean the close cooperation of several countries with some big long-term goals. In this sense, such cooperation is already taking place in a certain sense, for example, in the energy sector. I mean the supply of Russian gas to Türkiye and through its territory and the construction of the first Turkish nuclear power plant. These are large and important projects that, I am sure, will determine the relations between our countries in the economic field for many years to come.
In the political sphere, there are also close contacts on a bilateral and multilateral basis, in particular with Syria and Iran. It is important that such interaction is not directed against anyone: both Russia and Türkiye are interested in prosperity and security in the Black Sea region, the Caucasus and the Middle East. This should be the strategic basis for our cooperation. We are neighbors. We can and must solve emerging problems, taking into account each other’s opinion and without the intervention of non-regional countries.
Recently, you shared a tweet that the U.S. could interfere in the elections in Türkiye. Is your assessment based on concrete information?
This was an assumption based on something simple: Find a single country where the US is not involved in its internal affairs. We can’t find any…
Chinese-Russian relations are on the agenda. Do the two countries establish a military bloc among themselves?
No, there is no ground to consider a military bloc between Russia and China.
Alongside Russia and the USA, China is one of the centers of the multipolar world. China is a pragmatic country. We have some common points with China where our strategic interests are the same, and we act together on these points.
I should add that China has not made any military supplies to Russia.
So, it’s not cooperation against any other countries?
No, we are unlikely to cooperate or, as we say, to be friends against someone…
You don’t consider the U.S. as an enemy?
Sure, it is an enemy. Every NATO country except Türkiye is our enemy… How else we can evaluate the U.S. when it imposes his sanctions and when says that Russia must not exist.
Let’s go to Europe. Do you think that Europe could get out from US influence in near future?
I don’t except such a possibility, we see the protest against pension reform in France and we see generally how people are in bad mood in Europe. They start to question why they need to spend so much money for the Ukrainian war. But I do not except that in near future Europe might change its policies due to all these difficulties. Still, if it changes policy, it will move towards Russia of course.
How do you evaluate, the progress of so-called extreme right parties in Europe? Do you consider these parties as ally of Russia?
It is too early to speak about a possibility of union or any cooperation between them and Russian parties. But we see that these political groups are standing for their national interests. We see that globalism ends badly and they are tired of bad immigration policies. We see that interacting with these parties will be more pragmatic and efficient in terms of Russian national interests and also theirs.
There is a famous saying of Charles de Gaulle: “Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.” Do you support the idea of a united Europe?
The issue of united Europe is not a matter of debate, because an important part of the Europen continent is Russian territory. But Europe as it is now, we do not share the same ways…As for the De Gaulle: If a new De Gaulle emerges, this can be taken into consideration. But there is no new De Gaulle on the horizon right now.
Do you think that there will be a united Ukraine after this war?
A united Ukraine with the borders of 1991 will probably not exist… I think they will end up in confederation.
How will the war the end?
Nobody knows when this conflict will end. There is the historical region called Novorossiya which includes Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson and Odessa…
Russians have historically lived in this region. But the Ukrainian side puts pressure on the Russians living here.
As I told you, life will put everything in right place.
Russia has decided to place nuclear warheads in Belarus. Do you see the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons?
I hope there will be no nuclear war because otherwise it would be madness.
Russia is deploying tactical nuclear bombs in our union state because there is a union state agreement between Russia and Belarus. This step is in retaliation for NATO aggression.
PMC “Wagner” is one of the main topics in the world. How do you evaluate Wagner? Yevgeny Prigozhin is your close friend. Is it true that he will join your political party?
I fully share the goals and objectives of Wagner PMC. I like its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin as a person. We have known each other for a long time and meet regularly, but we have no joint political projects.
I must say that today PMC “Wagner” valiantly performs tasks, not only on the battlefield. It also does a lot of educational work. I recently visited the PMC Wagner Center in St. Petersburg and found out that they are developing new ideas to increase the defense capability of Russia, for example on the sector of information, which is especially relevant today. The center provides free training opportunities for IT specialists.
The Wagner Center youth club also operates at the Wagner Center. Among its main tasks are educating the young generation to love the Motherland, preparing young people for military service, and providing volunteer assistance to members of the NWO.
PMC “Wagner” is doing a huge multifaceted work, protecting our country and the whole world from Nazism, and I believe that the activities of PMCs should be legalized.
What is Eurasianism for you?
When we talk about the Russian world, the Slavic-Turkic unity, the Eurasian civilizational platform, we mean the space on which people live, united not only by a common history, centuries-old experience of communication and interaction, but also by a common understanding of goodness and justice, rooted in the traditions of Orthodoxy and Islam and Buddhism. Eurasianism implies that we are obliged to recognize, preserve and develop this ethno-social, ethno-cultural integrity, the tradition of tolerant, respectful attitudes towards the forms of life of the peoples close to us.
That is why now the collective West is making every possible effort to undermine and destroy our civilizational identity. They realize that that this identity underlies at the same time the political sovereignty of Russia, the integrity of our state and its relations with the outside world.
At the same time, it would be fundamentally wrong to limit Eurasianism to the borders of the modern Russian Federation or the former USSR. And here it should be noted that there are only two Eurasian countries in the world – Russia and Türkiye. Therefore our role as a civilizational bridge between West and East, North and South is extremely important and unique. This is another significant reason for strengthening cooperation between our countries.
* I would like to thank Emilya Zatolachnaya, the press secretary of Mr. Mironov, and my journalist friend Edvard Chesnokov, who supported the realization of the interview.