ΣΚΙΑΓΡΑΦΩΝΤΑΣ ΤΗ ΣΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ
ΡΩΣΙΑ
Μία συνέντευξη του Ρώσου
διανοητή Alexander Nevzorov
O Alexander Glebovich (Алекса́ндр Гле́бович Невзо́ров) Nevzorov, από τους κορυφαίους δημοσιογράφους και τηλεοπτικούς συντελεστές της σύγχρονης Ρωσίας, τέως μέλος του Κοινοβουλίου της και ακτιβιστής φίλιππος, από τους κορυφαίους Ιππολόγους με διεθνώς ανεγνωρισμένο Ιππικό Οργανισμό (Nevzorov Haute Ecole) που ίδρυσε και λειτουργεί υπέρ της ευημερίας του Ίππου, παραχωρεί μια βαρυσήμαντη συνέντευξη στον δημοσιογράφο Roman Tsymbaliuk "εφ' όλης της ύλης" για μία χώρα που πέρασε την λαίλαπα του σοβιετικού κομμουνισμού καταλήγοντας στην ...μετα-λαίλαπα ενός προσωποπαγούς κρατισμού ο οποίος συνεχίζει την κομμουνιστική απανθρωπιά σε παραπειστική "συσκευασία" ...μετ-εξελίξεως! O Alexander Glebovich Nevzorov
(Алекса́ндр Гле́бович Невзо́ров) είναι ένας από τους μεγαλύτερους συγχρόνους
φυσιοκεντριστές φιλοσόφους οι οποίοι ερμηνεύουν την εξέλιξη του ανθρώπινου
Πολιτισμού μέσα από την φυσιολογική συμπεριφορά των πλασμάτων της και επέλεξε
την παρατήρηση και την "αποκρυπτογράφηση" της σκέψεως και της
συμπεριφοράς του Ίππου προς εξαγωγή ωφελίμων συμπερασμάτων για την προώθηση του
μέλλοντος ανθρώπινου Πολιτισμού, όπως ακριβώς και ο Kassai Lajos στην Ουγγαρία,
ο Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling στη Γερμανία, οι
Franklin Levinson και Monty Roberts στις Η.Π.Α. αλλά και άλλοι σε
ολόκληρο το δυτικό κόσμο. Ίδρυσε μία παγκόσμια Ακαδημία Υψηλής Ιππικής με στόχο
την ευημερία του Ίππου και εργάζεται σκληρά προκειμένου ο υστερημένος
αντιλήψεως "μέσος" Άνθρωπος να κατανοήσει βασικές αρχές κοινωνικής
ευημερίας οι οποίες, αν και αυτονόητες, εξακολουθούν να παραμένουν
απροσέγγιστες από τη σκέψη του. Ο σημαντικός αυτός Ρώσος διανοητής στη παραπάνω
συνέντευξή του "χαρτογραφεί" με παρρησία λόγου τη
"μετα-σοβιετική" εξέλιξη στη Ρωσία, το θρησκευτικό δηλητήριο που
διαβρώνει τη κοινωνία της και την ουτοπία των ιμπεριαλιστικών βλέψεων του
ελάχιστου Βλαντιμίρ Πούτιν στις ανύπαρκτες ηθικές αξίες αλλά και
"ικανότητες" πιστεύουν οι γεννημένοι ραγιάδες που ελπίζουν τη σωτηρία
τους από έναν περιστασιακό δημαγωγό με ημερομηνία λήξεως.
Alexander Nevzorov was one of the most famous Russian
journalists at the turn of the 1990s. His 600Seconds TV show was at the top of
the ratings across the country. Nevzorov "took part" in almost all
post-Soviet military conflicts, advocating, as he said, "the interests of
the empire." Now he is one of the few in Russia who call the Donbas
militants by their real names: criminals and terrorists. In an interview with
UNIAN, Nevzorov reasons why it is impossible to build a "Russian
world," and why, sooner or later, Russia will give up on the Donbas
militants and hand them over to the official Kyiv. According to the publicist,
Putin will easily find the reasons for dumping Donbas and totally bury the
Novorossiya myth. Nevzorov believes that in any scenario, Russia’s attempts to
recreate the empire will be too costly.
- Why has
your perspective changed so much over time? In the early '90s, you were an
active advocate of the preservation of the Soviet Union, you visited
Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh and other hot spots with where Russia was
involved directly… And now you have absolutely no support for the militants in
Luhansk and Donetsk regions…
- Whenever
I'm asked this question (and I am, rather frequently), I give examples of many
people. Starting with Max Planck, who started exploring the dark matter hoping
to prove the absence and insignificance of nuclear factors. At first, Planck
rigidly opposed the theory of nuclei and atoms, only to become later one of the
world’s greatest physicists in this field. We know a lot of people that change
their minds in matters much more serious than some politics, under the
influence of hard facts, updated information, and the changing times. Let’s
remember the great geologist, Charles Lyell, who has refused for a long tome to
put up with the theory of glaciers, capable of carrying huge boulders over long
distances. However, in the sixth edition of his study, Lyell honestly said that
was wrong.
With
respect to empire, I have a special approach, different from anyone else’s.
Yes, I was a legionnaire of the empire and the last soldier of the empire, and,
unlike all those who spill all this empty talk over this issue, I defended this
empire and fought for it. I did everything for it to survive, but my experience
showed me that there is nothing more fragile and senseless than the empire.
There’s nothing difficult to dislodge it these days within two or three months.
This form is unsustainable. As I took part in the collapse of the empire, and
in various coups, I know how fast and easily it can be accomplished.
So, when we
talk about what Russia does in Ukraine, we should understand that there could
be any other country instead of Ukraine. Ukraine is only the sauce to an
imperial dish, which Russia serves itself. Ukraine is a symptom of imperial
ambitions but not Russia’s goal. It was necessary for the Kremlin to step
firmly with its blood-stained tarpaulin boots, and it didn’t matter where. But
they failed to do it in Ukraine.
To my great
surprise, Ukraine was keen on resistance and brilliant victories. Had it not
been Ukraine, Russia would be doing this to someone else. We see that it is in
Ukraine where the Russian world has broken down. That is, the shroud of the
Russian national idea will probably be decorated with Ukrainian embroidery, and
also with some Arabic script.
The main
motive will be Ukrainian national embroidery, because, in the process of these
gangster-style developments in Donbas, it became clear that the “Russian world”
lacks personnel. There is just a set of criminals, a certain number of
absolutely ignorant and evil thugs. Russia isn’t able to offer anything else to
the global history to bring to life its imperial designs. All these Girkin-like
militant leaders, all these ridiculous Cossacks, all these thugs, thieves, and
terrorists, who founded that criminal and terrorist den in Donbas – that’s
everything Russia has in the 21st century. Nothing more.
- So, are
you saying that the idea of a "Russian world" is utopian?
-
"Russian world" can’t be built. The are plenty of reasons for that.
One of these reasons is lab-tested in Donbas. It’s the lack of personnel.
Because regular troops can’t be perceived seriously. We know the Russian army,
and we know how this huge Russian army was defeated by a tiny Chechnya. This
Chechnya has made Russia pay contributions, and this Chechnya has been making
Russia turn a blind eye to what is happening in its territory.
The
"Russian world" was defeated not only with the personnel factor. It
is impossible in its core. Just like it’s now impossible to clone a dinosaur,
despite all its power, the number of teeth and placoid scales. You can’t give
him a chance to inhabit a forest park. It just won’t happen. A dinosaur will
sure be shot, because no one needs one today. This form of life is
unsustainable.
- Is this
your forecast for the "Russian" Donbas?
- I think,
Donbas, I think, will be purged. There’s also a faint hope that the terrorists
will kill each other. As I’ve always said, the ideal way would be for the
Russian troops to come to Donbas with the only aim of uniting with the ATO
forces and breaking this criminal hive. Life is full of surprises. It is
possible that this may as well be the case. Because Russian life is bursting at
the seams.
- But then
the Russian president's rating will fall, because people will think that Putin
"has given up on the Russians," "given up on Donbas",
"bowed down in front of the Americans"...
- I think
that he will find an explanation for his 86% [of the Russian citizens who
support Vladimir Putin according to the polls]. He has a very good propaganda
machine, and everything is alright with his diplomatic dodging skills.
Therefore, he will find the necessary words. Especially, when it becomes clear
that someone will have to be assigned responsibility for the downed Boeing, it
will immediately become clear that all these people have nothing to do with the
Russian authorities and that they are all just criminals and villains. It will
be very interesting to see, whether the Kremlin hands these Russian Donbas
“heroes” of the “Russian world” over to the official Kyiv in handfuls or one by
one.
It does not
matter whether Putin is good or bad. His past and his character don’t matter
either. He believes that the imperial idea is worth being paid for with
happiness, life and well-being of two or three or four generations. Clearly,
this is taken from the so-called Great Russian culture, which is infected with
such sentiments, and from Orthodoxy. There are plenty of factor, especially the
philosophical and ideological ones. And I'm absolutely serious now. If we
recall German Nazism, it would have been impossible without the German
Romantics and the foundation created by these wonderful people. All the Nazi
ideology initially came from the German genius, the first German attempts to
connect philosophy and ideology.
Sometimes
everything turns upside down. Putin is deeply committed to this imperial idea.
Apparently, he sees his historic mission in it. The audience applauds him. This
is true. This 86% is not some sociological fiction. It’s just that the
propaganda game has not been really ethical.
I wish he
initially told these 86%, with all honesty, that everything will eventually
result in the emergence of the great “Russian world,” and we may be
astonishingly great, our well-being and prosperity we will be provided for
hundreds of years ahead, as it lies in the abscess of national greatness that
we need to harvest - only with the proviso that it may as well end really
crappy, that for this abscess of national greatness the Russians will have to
pay a high price: the lives, well-being, prosperity, opportunities to travel
the world, and eat nice food, and provide education for their children… That we
will get the "Russian World" anyway, but, like any empire, it would
be fragile and could fall apart at the touch of a skillful finger...
But Putin
chose not to elaborate, and this is perhaps the only claim against him that I
could think of. Besides that, ha he has been doing his job perfectly: he has
been sculpting this empire very carefully and meticulously.
He needed
Crimea, not because he needs the peninsula, but the very fact of the annexation
of some piece of land, as an example of imperial behavior. I must say it is
very difficult. One thing is sculpting an empire of millions of serfs, similar
in terms of their development to the indigenous peoples of Borneo and Papua.
Another thing is molding a great empire of the feces that this day
offers.Today, the empire lacks the number of factors it needs. Besides, Russia,
unfortunately, or generally, fortunately, is powerless. This was proved during
the Chechen war.
- I do not
want you to fall under the certain articles of the Russian Criminal Code, but
still, I can’t but not ask you about the future of Crimea…
- By asking
this question, you put me in an awkward position anyway and push me to the
banned action, since we have an article introduced to the Criminal Code for
expressing certain thoughts. I don’t intend to experience the effects of
criminal prosecution, so I will say nothing. You know all my thoughts on this
subject.
- In the
context of thinking about your empire, how is modern Russia different from the
Soviet Union, which so many people are so nostalgic about?
- I have no
nostalgia. I reminisce of both the good and the bad of the Soviet Union,
equally. This was my Homeland, and I used to treat the word
"Homeland" seriously. And if I treat something seriously, I fight for
it. I have no nostalgia and delusions about that reality, which was in fact
vile, unnatural, ruthless and stupid.
Fortunately, I have no Homeland now, as Russia has done nothing yet that
has allowed me to grant it this honorary title. Let it try, then maybe I will.
Meanwhile, Russia is just doing stupid things.
- Why has
Russia come to the state when there are only enemies on the outside, while
there is this “spiritual bondage” and ostentatious Orthodoxy as one of the
pillars of the State?
- Orthodoxy
in Russia is not ostentatious. And you should not think that on the one hand,
there is something sublime and spiritual, which makes people better, and on the
other – there are clerics like Gundyaeev or Chaplin, who are dance their spooky
cancan, sporting golden coats and beards. You should not think that these are
two separate phenomena. All of this is the core of Orthodoxy. Aggressive,
intolerant and aggressive stance is the real Orthodoxy.
Recall the
ideologist of Russian Nazism and chauvinism, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. At first, he
was a completely normal person… But having witnessed the public execution of a
group of revolutionaries, Dostoyevsky was terrified. This fear has turned him
into a friend of the regime. Read his works, and you will see that Orthodoxy
knows no pity. And not because it is some sort of perversion. This is his
doctrine, his essence.
You came up
with with some abstract nonexistent religion, something spiritual. But religion
and spirituality is actually exactly what today's Russia is showing. It’s in
Girkin, in Cossack terrorists, in covering the Syrian sands with bombs... This
is what the Orthodoxy is!
- Is it
difficult living in Russia for such an outspoken atheist as you?
- I have no
such difficulties. I have never faced rejection of my position. Furthermore, I
understand that almost everyone here is an atheist, although a concealed one.
The world
is saved from Russia due to the fact that Orthodoxy is absolutely bogus. Yes,
it is terrible, but fortunately, it’s not real. All the people who call
themselves believers, are mostly a sham. We know, based on the history of the
Church, the lives of the saints, how believers should behave, what behavioral
characteristics we should see. But what we see is that all the things that
today's Orthodox Christians do have nothing in common with those characteristics.
- After
almost two years of war against Ukraine, Russia suddenly remembered an old idea
of “fraternal nations” although, before that, they tried to “liberate” Ukraine
from the Ukrainians. Will there be any effect of this rhetoric?
- We are no
fraternal nations. We must understand it. The Russians and the Ukrainians have
their own national heroes, their national priorities, things important and
unimportant for the nation. These are completely different nations, which got
connected by accident, through geographic proximity. These are the nations with
different culture, different life views. They really have nothing much in
common. If someone wishes to fool their brains with this “brotherhood,” I have
no such illusions.
I
understand that the Ukrainians have the right, for many decades, to flinch from
the very word "Russia," and hate it as well. And this is right. I
know it's not my fault and not the fault of the people who are close to me, but
still I fall under responsibility for the fact that Russia has done in Donbas:
for those deaths, the terrorists who hide behind hospitals, street vendors and
insanity of the "Russian world." Unfortunately, I, too, must bear
responsibility. And Ukraine has the right to despise me and hate me. It is
bitter, but, because I’m a reptile, maybe I can live with that.
But in
general, one should not draw illusions that we will be great friends, again. We
will not be forgiven, and rightly so. This can't be forgiven.
- A lot of
the Russian opponents of the current president of the Russian Federation give
advice and criticize Ukraine… Many believe that Ukraine can build the
"other Russia without Putin." Why did you refrain from giving any
advice?
- I do not
give advice to anyone. It is pointless. How can we give advice to a foreign
country? Who am I to this country to give advice? Also, I do not belong to the
opposition. On this issue, I’m a sided mathematician, an observer who was
offered to make calculations and draw conclusions. My conclusions are what they
are. For me, the picture is very clear.
However,
I'm not ready for and I will never go into opposition because, after all, I
have a right to despise the empire, Putin has a right to pray for this empire.
Perhaps the consequences of my contempt and his prayers will be different, but
he will answer for his actions, he is quite a brave and courageous man.
Besides, I remember this opposition, as they burst into happy laughter,
watching me being arrested, the TV shows and newspapers being closed up, and the
parliament building being shelled. I remember that opposition, they are no
better than today’s reactionaries. There is nothing better about them. They
wish they weren’t locked up… But they also wish to lock up the others.
Look, Garry
Kasparov is not a stupid man. But listen to this bloodthirsty and irresponsible
tone, so familiar to us, in his latest appeal for post-Putin Russia. We
remember that Marat and Robespierre were finished liberals, that they prayed to
freedom. But they were ready to have thousands executed so that no one
prevented them from praying. And I'm not ready to do so. I believe that the
only concern should be about the possibilities of development and prosperity.
Everything else is worth a penny.
- You were
one of the most famous journalists in the '90s, and then you took a long pause,
you have been researching the horses ... Why are you back in journalism?
- Yes, I’ve
been researching the horses, then I took up the study of humans and other
animals. Honestly, I thought that I was through with journalism and that my
grave in journalism has long been covered with me-nots. It turned out
differently.
When this
information war against Ukraine started, I came back because of Donbas.
I regained
my positions that I had had before my long absence quite easily. There came the
offers, but I'm a very picky mercenary. I may accept or not accept the offer. I
am very hard to seduce, and it’s totally not about money.
In part, in
this story with Donbas, they were trying really hard to recruit me to that
side. All of my buddies from all the wars I’ve gone through – OMON [police task
force] guys from Riga, from Vilnius, Transnistrian heroes – all of them went to
Donbas. However, I immediately sensed that this smells sharply of traditional
thuggery, the smell that can’t be mistaken. There was no such smell in
Transnistria and in all other conflicts. But here, in the Donbas case, it
stinks with the Orthodoxy and thuggery. The mixture of these two flavors has
completely repulsed me. So I had no will to participate, but it turned out that
I was interested in it, got involved and "went for a buffet.”
Roman Tsymbaliuk