| The right has not given up on the idea of re-educating humanity The other day, the secretary for ideology of the federal political council of the Union of Right Forces, Leonid Gozman, presented to experts a somewhat forgotten right-wing project, “Liberal Imperialism.” Realizing their true purpose, Russian political scientists decided to speculate at length about the fate of the post-Soviet space - for this it is planned to hold a series of discussions with the general topic “Projects for Russia.”
In accordance with the project presented by Mr. Gozman, Russia should become an empire in the foreseeable future. This idea was first voiced more than a year ago by the head of RAO UES of Russia, Anatoly Chubais, but then “it did not receive proper development.” Before unfolding a new picture of the world to those present, Leonid Gozman reassured them, informing them that the “Liberal Empire” is nothing more than a metaphor, there is no emperor and there never will be.”
Nevertheless, according to the ideologist of the Union of Right Forces, an empire is very natural for Russia, since all the achievements of science and culture belong specifically to the period of the empire. In addition, Mr. Gozman is confident that over time our country should become a single world metropolis.
According to Mr. Gozman, the “Liberal Empire” project implies the creation of a strategic union of all democratic countries. By becoming a member of this union, Russia must solve such important tasks as promoting Russian business in other countries and ensuring the interests of those people who identify themselves with Russia. “We are interested in our neighbors being normal democratic countries that will be open to dialogue,” said Leonid Gozman. The project assumes that Russia will make the post-Soviet space a “zone of responsibility”, trying to defend liberal and democratic freedoms in the states of the former USSR.
To unite under the model of a liberal empire, states must find “a common strategic goal, a common interest.” And here the ideologist of the opposition Union of Right Forces spoke out quite in the spirit of the Russian authorities, calling the fight against terrorism such an idea. Having made the reservation that terrorist acts are just tools for the spread of totalitarianism in the world. As the expert stated, without Russia’s entry into this empire, “the northern ring will not close”: “We must unite in order to bear joint responsibility for what is happening on the planet.” After which a “world empire” will emerge in the world, which will include Russia, Western Europe, the USA and Japan on equal terms.
Director of the Center for Political Expertise, leader of the Eurasia movement, Alexander Dugin, in response to such a rosy prospect, suggested that in a liberal empire the leader would not be Russia at all, but the United States, already capitalized Empire. Therefore, it is necessary either to come to terms with the multipolar world and become one of its poles, or to close the new world empire on yourself. Whether it will be liberal will become clear later.
Surprised by the optimism of his colleagues, the head of the Mercator group, Dmitry Oreshkin, reproached them for excessive globalism: “Tyutchev and Lenin, Vernadsky and Tolstoy dreamed of different things, but globally, and not a single dream came true.” Moreover, according to the political scientist, now in Russia “there is no idea of the future, but only a popular print from the past.” “The imperial body is alive, but the imperial soul is dead and stinks,” Mr. Oreshkin stated the crisis of the national idea and promised that Russia has a chance to become a “global periphery,” like Belarus for Europe.
Director of the Center for Strategic Studies in St. Petersburg, Anatoly Berger, generally denied Russia the opportunity to build a world empire on its own basis. “Unfortunately, for now Russia will only be able to occupy a peripheral place in this empire due to differences in the interests of those states that could form the backbone of such an empire,” Mr. Berger noted.
The editor-in-chief of Cosmopolis magazine Denis Dragunsky hastened to console the gloomy Leonid Gozman, saying that, in his opinion, the project of the “Liberal Empire” is quite feasible. “I am very impressed by the aggressive tone of this project and the confidence of the authors in its implementation,” he noted. “I am confident that we will be able to find a point of contact with the democratic Western empire that will ensure a favorable position for our country.” Having become tired, political scientists decided not to go into details and not find out what could really become such a point, as well as who would undertake to implement the idea of a liberal empire. In particular, because there is no place for such an idea in current Russian politics. The experts were unanimous on this. Daria GUSEVA |
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