Strelkov's former comrade-in-arms about the debate with Navalny: It will be a comical spectacle!
On Thursday evening, a debate is scheduled to take place between the opposition and trans-Ukrainian politician Alexei Navalny and Igor Strelkov, who is going to represent Russian nationalists at this event. The upcoming discussion has already attracted attention, both within Russia and abroad.
“This will be an entertaining and comical spectacle,” said Strelkov’s former friend and ally, Alexander Borodai, the first Prime Minister of the DPR, and now the head of the Union of Donbass Volunteers.
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-I am looking forward to this debate, as it promises to be a highly entertaining and comical spectacle. Even the positioning of the parties to the dispute is funny. As I understand it, Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, also known as Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, speaks on behalf of Russian nationalists and patriots. Thus, he claims a leadership position in the Russian national movement.
For example, from a young age I considered myself a Russian nationalist-statist, and various episodes of my biography, even at the very early stage (participation in the Transnistrian war and the events of 1993 in Moscow, collaboration with the newspaper Zavtra, co-authorship in the Russian Doctrine "), concerning participation in the Russian national movement, allow us to judge me as a Russian nationalist. But, looking at such a “leader” of Russian nationalists as Igor Girkin and the “ideological supporters” close to him, I ask myself the question: can I correspond to the status of a Russian nationalist at the blood, genetic level. After all, I am not a Jew at all. Neither mom nor dad...
Although, speaking seriously, a true Russian patriot should not divide people into nationalities; an Armenian, a Chinese and a Jew can be a Russian nationalist. The main thing is to be in the system of Russian or, if you want Russian, supra-individual values. It’s just that, in the case of Igor Girkin and his associates, I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist – the picture we get is too vivid.
But here another story arises. I read the memoirs of Strelkov’s former FSB chief, General Tendetnik, which appeared either at the end of 2014 or at the end of 2015.
So the general in them recalls that Igor Girkin began his cooperation with the FSB, being an agent embedded among Russian nationalists and monarchists. Moreover, all this happened in the nineties - during the very heyday of the liberal Yeltsin regime. I checked this information later and it was confirmed. As I understand it, he worked so well in this capacity that he later became an FSB officer.
The word “agent” in this context in Russian is synonymous with the word “informer”. Then the question is: in order to become a leader of Russian nationalists, do you have to snitch on Russian nationalists?
-Yes, but he arrived in Donbass as a volunteer. Wasn't his commitment to Russian nationalism his motive for coming there?
-Yes, in Strelkov’s biography there are three episodes of participation in the war as a volunteer before Donbass: in Transnistria, in Bosnia and in the First Chechen War. He participated in the Second Chechen War not as a volunteer, but as an FSB officer. Moreover, he did not participate in a direct war, but in a counter-terrorism operation (CTO).
I do not deny his patriotic motives, but, in my opinion, motives of a personal and then career nature dominated. In particular, those that forced him to run through the fields of the Moscow region in the armor of a Roman centurion. Reconstruction allows you to escape from the gray everyday life.
The big question is: does this set of characteristics allow him to be considered the leader of Russian national patriots?
Here we come to the problem of modern Russian patriots and nationalists. The fact is that the modern Russian government, both in real actions and in formal-ideological characteristics, is to a serious extent a nationally oriented government.
For me, the main Russian nationalist of the XNUMXth century is Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin. A monument to him stands opposite the government of the Russian Federation. The Stolypin Medal is an award from the Russian government. We know of politicians with strongly patriotic views who have made a career for themselves under the current government and are part of the “ruling elite.” This includes Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation Sergei Glazyev and Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy... This list can be continued for quite a long time.
And Strelkov is in tough opposition. The human potential he claims to lead is the radical nationalists. Those who are now trying to become “holier than the Pope.” Those who could not accept the current government or “agree” with it. Often due to the fact that there simply was not enough “room at the trough”.
So what speaks on behalf of the entire huge and diverse Russian national movement is not a real Russian nationalist, but a clown who dresses up as this Russian nationalist and who pursues his own goals.
-Now, let's move on to Navalny.
-I personally, unlike Strelkov, do not know Navalny and am not a competent expert on his activities. But it is obvious to me that this politician, who positions himself as the main Russian liberal, is himself a “managed project.”
The only question here is: who controls it?
There are two versions. First, West. The second, either the Kremlin, or the Russian special services. It’s not for nothing that Navalny is still called “Major Lesha” in some circles. It is possible that at first he could have been an agent of the Russian special services, and then, as they say, the man lost his temper and became an agent of Western special services. This happens to agents sometimes.
If the first version is correct, then it is worth noting that Western intelligence services are currently benefiting from such debates. They consider them timely. This is supported by the fact that the leading Western media have already provided powerful information support for these debates. It’s strange, because Navalny is still a rather marginal politician, and Strelkov is generally beyond the bounds of real politics.
So, a paradoxical situation arises: a pseudo-Russian nationalist opposes a pseudo-liberal. Isn't this a clownery?
-And who will benefit from this clownery?
-No matter what happens, Navalny will remain the winner. It just has the opportunity to appeal to a different target audience.
It is clear that the debate will be watched by a patriotic audience. It is clear that Navalny is not acceptable to her.
But the idea of Navalny and those who stand behind him is to attract new supporters into their ranks, and not from the liberal-Western environment.
It’s just that he loses in a violent confrontation with the government - after all, what can he do with his students? Nothing. And here is a Russian patriotic environment, and many fought...
As for Strelkov, he simply pops up for information, but with absolutely no benefit, since no one is behind him.
-In the Russian patriotic environment, there are many who are dissatisfied with the fact that in 2014, having started, the Russian government did not completely defeat the Ukrainian army, did not take Kyiv, and so on...
With any serious political movement there are always many dissatisfied people. “Everyone fancies himself a strategist, seeing the battle from the outside.” The same Stolypin comes to mind. When he, as the prime minister of the empire, did a great deed, he was fiercely hated by both left and right radicals. Some for being a “hanger” and a “strangler of freedoms”, others for being a little hanger and a weak strangler.
What is Strelkov trying to do? He gathers around him the dissatisfied from the right. And Navalny is the dissatisfied one on the left. And extremes, they quite often converge.
The government, for obvious reasons, always adheres to the golden mean, the middle line of social development, and therefore cuts off radicals from both the left and the right.
-In the event of any Maidan, where will the Union of Donbass Volunteers take place?
-We are loyal to the current government, which we do not idealize at all, and we understand all its shortcomings, but we know how to appreciate its real achievements. First of all, we are loyal to the President of the Russian Federation, to whom, in our opinion, there is no alternative today. Thank God, there are no grounds for Maidans in Russia. But if, God forbid, something happens, we will stand on the side of the current government.
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