In an exclusive interview with L’Express, his first interview since the start of the war in Ukraine, the “real mage of the Kremlin”, Vladislav Sourkov, the man who made Putin, explains his vision of the world and specifies his concept of “North Global”. “It may not be for tomorrow, it will be done at the cost of conflicts and tragedies, but it is certain that the United States, Europe and Russia will reach a high degree of mutual understanding and cooperation” he prophesies.
“Sourkov knows how to surprise, deciphers Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean, at the head of the IFRI Russian/Eurasia Center. His writings often threw a pavement in the pond and forced the different Russian currents to position themselves. The liberals were indignant. The elites were looking to interpret these texts overloaded with allusions and historical, religious, religious, religious, literary “.
The “Global North”? A concept formulated in a test in 2023. Vladislav Sourkov had left power for three years. In the midst of war in Ukraine, this idea seemed “incongruous”, recalls the political scientist. Even today, she “leaves more questions in suspense than she gives answers,” said Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean. Interview.
L’Express: in the interview he gave us, Vladislav Sourkov evokes “survival of the great Nordic civilization, to which Russian, European and American cultures belong”. How do you interpret its concept of “global north”?
Tatiana Jean :: At the end of September 2023, Vladislav Sourkov hit the spirits by evoking this concept of “global north”, in an article which seemed to the antipodes of the context of the moment. Russia had invaded Ukraine and accused it of being only a russophobic “collective West” proxy dominated by the United States. Faced with this decadent and destructive West, Russia then sets itself up as a leader of the “global south” (“global majority” in Russian terminology) having also suffered from Western acts.
And now Sourkov, in the midst of war, formulates this concept of “global north” embracing the United States, Europe and Russia in a single socio-cultural space, on the basis of common history and Christian origins! He regrets that the West did not seize, in the early 2000s, Putin’s proposal to think about the support of Russia to NATO. The article appeared almost incongruous, was misunderstood and aroused less comments than his previous writings or even those of a Sergei Karaganov [NDLR : politologue connu pour sa “doctrine Karaganov” de politique étrangère, visant à l’hégémonie russe] calling for launching tactical nuclear strikes against the West.
Some had interpreted this article as a disguised criticism of the war in Ukraine, the confrontation between Russia and the West, and a call to return to the European vocation of Russia. “The chef will not be happy,” reported an anonymous interlocutor in a newspaper who identified the various comments. “Autors” (Editor’s note: these pro-war ultra-patriots) saw there a start of betrayal which would invite to conclude the war in Ukraine with a “Dogovorniak” with the West-a cynical agreement to the detriment of real interests. The rumor even said that a judicial inquiry had been launched against Sourkov for this article. No element has confirmed or deals with this information.
You underline, the concept of “global north” is quite far from the reality of the moment. Does this mean that Sourkov sees further?
Some see in Sourkov a visionary who tries to go beyond the current situation and consider this war as a stage allowing Russia to correct the imbalance of the post-war-coil, to set up in front of the West as an equal, to better resume the natural course of things. In short, Sourkov would seek not to lose sight of the long term and the deep meaning of history which, according to him, must impose Russia as one of the three large poles of the northern hemisphere, linked by the same civilizational bases and a common destiny.
But this concept of “global north” leaves more questions unanswered than it provides answers. How do we go from war by proxy between Russia and the West to peace? How to overcome the supposed Western Russophobia and the ambient detestation of the West in Russia? For what partial objective would such collective leadership be created? What mission would weld this “PAX Romana” of which Sourkov speaks? How to register it in the concept of “multipolarity”, at the heart of the Kremlin software since the time of Boris Yeltsin and Evgueni Primakov? What to do with BRICS+ and dedollarization and designing policies pushed for several years by Putin? Is the global south friend or an enemy in this concept that some interpreted as an antichineois manifesto, warning Vladimir Putin against an overly narrow alliance with China? He does not provide any response.
Can Donald Trump’s return to power change the situation?
With the arrival of Trump, close to the Putinian ideology, and his desire to repair the relationship with Russia, the idea of a Russian-American rapprochement seems less incongruous than a few months ago. But this alliance would obviously not be based on Western democratic and liberal values, but on conservative, illiberal, even autocratic values.
It would remain to sacrifice Ukraine on the altar of this unification and to settle the fate of Europe, despised both by Trump and Putin. It is interesting to place in this context the intervention of the American vice-president JD VANCE in Munich, who has made up for European leaders so that they do not hinder the nearby currents ideologically. Sourkov’s “Global North” project would then take on a completely different meaning. The three poles that are Russia, Europe and the United States would then tackle the migrants of the “Global South” and would seek to control the main transit routes of the goods “of spices and gold” to use the words of Sourkov in this article of 2023 – he evokes Vasco de Gama and Portugal looking for Christian allies to control the roads of spices and gold.
© / Vartika Sharma
Do you think Vladimir Putin shares with Vladislav Sourkov this thesis on the “Global North”?
It is paradoxical in the head of Putin: for years, he has hates the decadent collective West, and at the same time he seeks to climb to the level of the United States, whose power fascinates him, to speak to them as an equal and share the management of the world. In its mind, Europe is however completely vassalized by Washington on the strategic level. This reproach has always been openly formulated by Putin, who thinks that Europe would better respect its own interests if it was closer to Russia.
Europe’s current attempt to get out of Trump America and its harder positions towards Moscow are very poorly perceived. In the Trump-Putin-Puttine rapprochement scenario, Europe which continues to support Ukraine risks becoming the main enemy and the central target of all Russian subversions actions. We already see the first signs: analysts feel the wind turning and evolve their discourse. A recent article by Ilya Fabrichnikov (Member of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council, the main Think Tank Russian in matters of foreign policy) no longer evokes “the collective West”, but “collective Europe”, which would seek to master the space of the Black Sea by “making war” in Russia for this reason. The realization of the concept of Sourkov’s “Nord Global” seems far away …
.