23.12.2025, Moscow.
The Russian post-Soviet elites followed the idea of integrating into Europe; this is why they felt no concern about Ukraine’s intention to become part of Europe, the leader of the Essence of Time movement, political scientist and philosopher Sergey Kurginyan said on December 13 on the Right to Know program on TVC.
According to Kurginyan, back in late 1970s the elites of the USSR security services decided to get rid of the remote areas and integrate Russia into Europe. This process was initiated by a high-ranking official Otto Kuusinen and continued by his successor, the Chairman of the KGB, later Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Yuri Andropov.
The political scientist noted that the Russian post-Soviet elites looked at any processes around Russia from the viewpoint of their policy of integration into Europe. “If we are to become part of Europe in any event, why should we care what the Baltic States do?” Kurginyan illustrated this position.
“And we should support Ukraine: it wants to become part of the West, and so do we, so we will be friends, we will give it cheap gas and many other things. And we will not feel any concern whatever trends it has,” the political scientist described the strategy of the Russian post-Soviet elites towards post-Soviet Ukraine.
Describing the situation in independent Ukraine Kurginyan reminded about Yevgeny Marchuk who was First Deputy Chairman of the KGB of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic when the USSR collapsed. After independent Ukraine appeared, he became the first chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine.
“Later it turned out that he admitted that the only ones whom he supported were UNA-UNSO (Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense, organization banned in Russia),” the political scientist stressed.
According to Kurginyan, when he visited the Baltic States in the end of the Soviet period and talked to the local politicians they asked him, “Please tell our supervisors in Moscow that we should not keep saying we must exit the Soviet Union. They instruct us to say that.”
The political scientist noted that, except for one opposition member, the other ones who told him that in the Baltic States were “under civil supervisors,” i.e. they were supervised by the KGB.
Kurginyan stressed that the entire game was based on the idea that Russia was integrating into the West. “My question is: what will happen to this game now? This is really a hyper-strategic kind of an issue,” the political scientist stressed.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
