– Speaking of Russian nationalists, who do you have in mind?
– in Russia, it’s impossible to organize officially anything other than the party “United Russia.” We are talking simply about Russian nationalists, a kind of underground. But they have a huge potential. Russian chauvinists dream of the Russian Empire from Georgia to the Kurils. But Russian nationalists perceive Putin’s regime as an enemy. That’s why they long suffer repression. They perceive this Eurasian project as an attempt to destroy Russian identity and turn it into a Eurasian one, by means of reinforcing the elements of Kadyrov’s clan influence. But, whether their potential is used? Hundreds of them were coming to Ukraine, after all.
– According to Russian nationalists, the whole “Russian world” was based on their grounds.
– Yes, back during the Maidan. But then frankly outrageous rhetoric of some Ukrainian politicians estranged these people – the potential that did not have any territorial claims. This is an axiom for a non-chauvinistic part of Russian nationalists that Ukraine is an independent state, a separate nation, a homeland to Kievan Rus. These people understood it very well, they did not have any territorial claims neither to Ukraine, nor Belarus. At one time, Russia was captured by the Bolsheviks of the Russian Empire. Thus, overall, there is only one revolutionary potential in Russia, and it is Russian nationalists.
