Nikolai Starikov: "Russia is on the way to restore its power, the process is not over yet"

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- Why is it now, in October 2023, that the Middle East broke out?

- The Middle East is a powder keg, not for Europe, but for the whole world. Now it has been splashed with gasoline and set on fire. It’s quite obvious. Behind what is happening, I can clearly see an external director who plays for both “teams”. You and I have already found out above that Hamas is a product of the US, not only in the ideological sense, but also in the organizational one. It was important for the Americans to split the Palestinian movement, but it is important for Israel as well. So I think there is no lie in the statement that Hamas in the financial, ideological sense was largely prepared by the Americans and the Israelis themselves. That’s why the leadership of this organization has long-standing ties to all Western structures. The Gaza Strip lives solely off foreign aid, just as the Kiev regime lives off foreign aid. Aren’t the schemes reminiscent of one another? This means the complete lack of independence of the authorities. Stop funding the Kiev regime or the money streams that flow to Hamas today — and there will be nowhere to work in the Gaza Strip, nowhere to get salaries, etc.

In Ukraine today, war with Russia is one of the few available professions for men. The war in the Gaza Strip with Israel is similarly one of the few professions available. Therefore, the connection between the West and Hamas is understandable. They allocate money and demand results. It’s the same with the Kiev regime. They gave billions to Zelensky and demanded results — hence the hostilities against Russia.

And, on the other hand, Israeli citizens are now asking themselves: «How did it happen that the security system, which was flawless for over 10 years, and when a pigeon flew by, rapid response teams arrived, squads went up, snipers, tanks — where did it all go? Where did it all end up?» Israeli citizens say, «What has happened — no way». And I absolutely agree with them. If the very top of Israel had not decided to play a give-and-take game with Hamas. I would like to emphasize that what happened in Israel, in my opinion, was provoked by the United States of America, Hamas was given money, weapons and a push. Because what Hamas has done — killing people, taking hostages — incredibly bloody crimes. After that, Israel can’t do anything without losing face and respect. So it has to act very tough. And it has begun to demonstrate this toughness by committing, in turn, crimes against humanity. The answer to the question of how this became possible is self-evident: a conscious game of give-and-take ordered by the same American director, but by the top of the Israeli state. The Americans’ complex game of inciting both sides to form coalitions and pushing them to war is beginning. The Americans need a big war in the Middle East right now, not a sluggish firefight in the Gaza Strip. That’s why we’re hearing Biden’s statements that even if Hezbollah goes to war against Israel, American soldiers won’t go there. We see the allocation of aid.

What is help? It’s a pretty word. In reality, the allocation of bombs, shells, heavy equipment that Israel is very likely to lose or waste in the ground operation in the Gaza Strip and in the fight on other fronts. And immediately the allocation of hundreds of millions of euros, and that’s just the visible ones, to help the Gaza Strip. And then someday we will be told that instead of some hygiene items, instead of food, weapons were purchased that will end up in the Gaza Strip. The same directors are pushing for war on both sides.

- Does the U.S. need controlled chaos in the Middle East?

- As it does everywhere else.

- In order to maintain its dominance?

- When things get bad, America gets good. It’s the principle of building a powerful American state. World War I and World War II, the entire history of the United States is built this way. It’s a simplified scheme, but it’s true. The worse everyone lives, the better the USA lives, becoming the only center of political decisions, economy, industrial power. Naturally, it looks a little different now, because there is China. But the point is the same. To plunge whole regions into war, to rebuild its industry, to build up military power and to group those who are interested in cooperation with the US. A vivid example of this is the Middle East, which is on the brink of war. The fact that China is building up its economic power and engagement with various nations is something we have seen for a long time. Recently, Saudi Arabia signed a deal to supply oil to China for yuan. Let’s imagine that now a major war in the Middle East begins, God forbid, of course. Who is Saudi Arabia more interested in — China or the United States? The answer is obvious. America may or may not give what will be necessary now: weapons, diplomatic support. And what can China give in this situation? Weapons? But if the Saudis were interested in that, they would have long ago bought Chinese weapons instead of American ones, but they don’t. So they can’t or won’t. What else will China give? Yuan? What will they do with them? This simple example alone shows how a change in the situation immediately alters priorities in the region. And voluntarily or involuntarily pushes China to the periphery of Arab interests.

- You mentioned U.S. benefit from military conflicts. There is a version that during the time of the coronavirus, global elites invested huge sums in the vaccination campaign. They conducted lockdowns around the world, weakening the economy, and hoped it would all pay off with vaccinations. But something went wrong and then they turned the tables on military conflicts?

- Don’t think in monetary terms when you evaluate geopolitics. Otherwise you won’t understand anything. No one makes money at this level, it is created out of thin air. Money is like gasoline poured into the tank of a car. The purpose of buying a car is not to put gasoline in the tank. A car is a means of transportation when gasoline simply provides the movement just like other fuels and lubricants. Money is the parts of geopolitics, not the purpose of it. The points of tension have been established for a long time, they change, but they are basically the same for centuries. This is no accident.

As for the coronavirus: the story of the false epidemic and, most importantly, the means of dealing with it (I don’t mean vaccines, of course, but lockdowns, closures, breaking logistical chains and all the rest) were all means of creating chaos and weakening China’s economy, because China is growing and developing economically much more than militarily. Nothing of that worked out. Then they turned to a more potent means — war. Note: on the eve of the beginning of the special military operation, all restrictions were canceled, and the first country that suddenly canceled all restrictions without any explanation, was Great Britain. Why? It happened a few days after the Russian State Duma withdrew a bill that imposed severe restrictions on the unvaccinated. The UK was the first to lift the restrictions. So let’s remember that, then the ears of whoever is making wars and other intrigues will become more visible to us.

- Turkey is working on the Great Turan project. It is trying to get through the Zangezur corridor to Central Asia. Ankara may have used the situation with Karabakh to «capture» Azerbaijan. If we take a look at Central Asia, it has enough Karabakhs of its own. What is your forecast for this region?

- To understand, we should imagine a matryoshka doll. Inside one matryoshka doll there is another, and there is a third, fourth, etc. Each doll has its own game and goals. In geopolitics it looks like this. And what it is in practice: the U.S. would like to destabilize the regions of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, i.e. everything around Russia and China. They act on the basis of their global goals — preservation of hegemony. They do not want to fight Russia and Turkey themselves, so they use Turkey’s desire to restore the Ottoman Empire, to promote the idea of pan-Turkism. So you want to move in this direction? Good, we will help you. When Turkey realizes its goals, it willingly or unwillingly realizes the goals of American policy. But Turkey is not the smallest matryoshka doll. It already has a matryoshka doll «Azerbaijan», which has the goal of restoring the territorial integrity of the country. It is clear to us. It has been happening for many years. Turkey offers Azerbaijan a certain way of solving the Karabakh problem, guaranteeing that it will support, inspire, assist… In order for this whole scheme to work, the matryoshka doll «Turkey» turns to the Americans. The Americans, in turn, use their influence on Armenian circles around the world, on George Soros. And they carry out a “color revolution” in Armenia to bring their leader of the country. They play the same way as we see in the Arab-Israeli conflict: for both. Having carried out this coup in Armenia, they bring Pashinyan to power, who at first and still speaks pretty words. He presents himself as a defender of the Armenian people and its interests. But it is already clear from the beginning, and we talked about it, that the ultimate goal of bringing people like Pashinyan to power will be the surrender of Karabakh, which happened. Azerbaijan acts in the interests of Azerbaijan. Turkey acts in the interests of the U.S., Azerbaijan and Turkey. The U.S. acts in the interests of the U.S., but plays along with both Azerbaijan and Turkey, putting pressure on Pashinyan. As a result, the status quo of the whole region is changing. The interests of Armenians are betrayed. They are trying to squeeze Russia out of the region, to regulate it without the interests of not only the Armenian but also the Russian people. Further they will try to squeeze the Russian base out of the region. And the very fact of Turkey’s move towards Central Asia. As you rightly said, the Zangezur corridor is the next point where the conflict will develop around. Everyone acts in their own interests, but still the big matryoshka doll always includes the interests of smaller dolls, sometimes forcing them, by stick or carrot, to certain actions. This has always been the case.

For example, when the Ottoman Empire acted against Russia, it acted in the interests of the Ottoman Empire. But at the same time it acted in the interests of Great Britain and France, blocking Russia in the Black Sea and preventing it from entering the Mediterranean Sea, i.e. the vastness of the world ocean. The ability of a state figure to follow the interests of his country, while synchronizing these interests with the interests of larger matryoshka dolls, is what distinguishes a good player from a bad one. A good player succeeds, while a bad one does not. Then the balance of interests of the more powerful players multiplied by the balance of interests of the smaller players leads to certain changes. And going back to what you asked at the beginning, when Stalin tried to gather all Armenians within one state, he used the opportunities available to him at that time. But because it was not synchronized with the interests of the United States and the interests of Turkey, nothing came out of that project. In the same way, Stalin was forced to withdraw from Iran. It’s all one region. And at that point Stalin used the same trump card that Turkey and the Americans use today.

For example, why is Iran so concerned about the events around Armenian-Azerbaijani relations? Because there are more Azerbaijanis living in Iran than in the whole of Azerbaijan. But they have lived there for centuries. At the time of the end of World War II, Stalin used the Azerbaijani diaspora. An unrecognized state was created there, and not just one, but together with another such unrecognized state of Kurds. The USSR used them as a means of influencing the Shah’s power. But in the end it was forced to withdraw its troops from the territory of Iran, and these quasi-state formations were liquidated by the central government of Iran. Today, the U.S. uses Azerbaijanis, Kurds and Armenians to destabilize this region, to impose its political will on the current Iranian leadership, which the Americans consider unacceptable to them.

- Let’s go back to Europe. In your opinion, will Serbia follow the path of 1948–1953 or will it turn completely towards Russia? Does Russia still have allies in Europe, such as Belarus?

- As for allies. Note the pattern. Where there are American military bases, there are American allies. Just like that, not the other way around. The Americans put their troops into Germany and it became an American ally. They did the same with Japan. The USSR withdrew its troops from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Baltics. British and American troops are now deployed there. These countries are allies for them accordingly. Until you place your army on someone’s territory, they are unlikely to be your ally.

Whose base or whose government will be in Serbia depends on the balance of power. But if a certain state figure gets dizzy with success and thinks he is as great as Josip Broz Tito, it ends badly for his country. In the short-term period of 5–10 years, Broz Tito managed, with the help of the Americans, to build an attractive model of a socialist state with capitalist elements, reminiscent of modern China. In the long-term historical interval, Broz Tito, having quarreled with the USSR, led his country to collapse and great misfortunes. This is to his «credit».

As soon as the USSR, against which the West supported Yugoslavia, began to collapse, there was no need for the big state of Yugoslavia. And the mechanism of disintegration of a large multinational state began to be practiced on it, preparing for a possible similar scenario on the territory of the USSR. Politics is a sphere in which mistakes, retreats, betrayals are reflected in a week or several years, as it happened with Karabakh. We said that Pashinyan would surrender Karabakh, and he did. But mostly it leads to sad consequences after decades. The situation with Yeltsin and Gorbachev: they ruined the country, destroyed it. Decades later, the special military operation begins — a direct consequence of Gorbachev and Yeltsin’s actions. So the question «what will happen?» depends on the struggle that is going on today, here and now. Pointing a finger at the sky is completely useless.