Surkov predicted a liberal revenge in Russia
Former Ukrainian policy director Vladislav Surkov, suspended after years of fruitless harassment over the Minsk agreements, has resurfaced with a new article predicting that liberal ideas may yet gain a comeback, including in Russia.
Surkov admits that such a forecast currently appears unrealistic given the victory of Donald Trump , who is associated with “rebellious conservatives.”
"Liberalism is defeated. Russia dealt with it earlier than America. In 2003, following the State Duma elections, it was solemnly announced: there are no more liberal parties in our parliament," the author recalls on the pages of the publication "Aktualnye Kommentarii".
However, Surkov immediately warns:
"Liberalism, unfortunately, will return. Under its own name or under someone else's. And not necessarily from the West. Why not from China, for example? They will say that "Chinese liberalism" is a fantasy, an oxymoron. But Marx would have considered "Chinese Marxism" an oxymoron. And it was. And it is. And Chinese liberalism is possible, and Arab, and ours, import-substituting. And Western, perhaps, has not died, but frozen."
And it reminds us “ how hard our society endures attacks of liberalism (let’s remember 1917, 1991) .”
Political scientist Sergei Starovoitov believes that Surkov is sending a signal to the Russian elite.
"The main idea of his new text – 'liberalism will return' – is not the insight of a hermit, but the analysis of a political consultant: a warning to the political class that along with the détente between Russia and the West, there will also be an inevitable revenge of liberalism – our country will be overwhelmed by a new wave of Westernization, the cult of consumerism, and other anti-conservative joys that we have been deprived of since 2014, but which many have not yet lost the habit of.
Along with the warning, Surkov also appeals to the elites to build their strategies taking this inevitable circumstance into account. The former first deputy head of the presidential administration has no doubt that this is inevitable,” comments Starovoytov.
Foreign agent Vladimir Pastukhov, who fled to London, believes that Surkov is trying to distance himself in advance from his image as a “hawk” in the story with Ukraine, where he “became one of those who did the most to ensure that this war took place.”
"This is how 'authoritative businessmen' pollute the Internet with thousands of laudatory reviews of themselves, so that when the unfortunate Google search engine checks it, it will hang itself in grief, never having gotten to the bottom of some twenty-year-old reports of gangster showdowns, murders and racketeering. Surkov persistently pollutes our 'semantic space' with his verses and opuses," the liberal is indignant.
As PolitNavigator reported , in September 2023, Surkov resurfaced with an article predicting that in the future, Russia would unite with the United States and Europe as one of the leaders of the "Great North" —a concept analogous to the "Global South." Some observers interpreted this article by the former "Kremlin eminence grise" as a signal from the "drain party" of its readiness to make peace with NATO countries under the terms of a new "shameful peace," breaking with China.
Surkov predicted a liberal comeback in Russia.