An advisor to Putin predicts a Russian missile attack in the EU in 2027.

30 June 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

He predicts that this will be a warning to halt their war against Russia via their Ukraine proxy (using Ukrainian land and soldiers for NATO’s war against Russia), and that if NATO or the nation(s) that would then be bombed by Russia then attack Russia in response, then Russia must immediately destroy whatever nations did so. Of course, such an attack by Russia would constitute a direct threat to all of NATO on account of its Treaty’s Article Five, and would therefore likely produce either the termination of the NATO military alliance against Russia or else the WW3 deaths of half of Mankind within the following two years. He is saying that if the U.S. empire will carry to such an extreme its formerly ”Cold War” to capture Russia, then Russia will make sure that the U.S. empire will be at least as thoroughly destroyed as Russia will be. He also notes that on previous occasions, Putin came to regret having not having followed his advices but has repeatedly — though reluctantly —  come around to them by taking bolder action in accord with what had been his advices. (This is the reason why that professor is so highly honored in Russia.) Consequently, when he says “I believe there’s growing determination to launch far more serious attacks — both against Ukraine and against those European countries directly involved in the aggression against Russia. I think this will happen within a year,” this an extremely respected person in Russia who is saying it. Reuters has published a photo of him with Putin.

Here is the video of highlights from this interview:

——

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UFql5virzE4

00:00

INTERVIEWER: In Russia, too [not only among the countries that are trying to conquer Russia], it seems like

00:02

war fatigue is growing; drones

00:03

are striking infrastructure,

00:06

reaching deep into Russia. Do you understand

00:09

…

00:10

the current state

00:12

of the front and the economy,

00:14

and whether Russia has a plan? Because it seems like

00:16

…

00:18

these are difficult times.

00:19

KARAGANOV: A plan is currently being discussed. And I believe that

00:23

resolve is building

00:26

to start striking much more seriously

00:29

at both Ukraine and those European countries

00:32

that are directly participating in

00:35

the aggression against Russia. I think that

00:36

will happen in a year.

00:38

INTERVIEWER: In a year?

00:39

KARAGANOV: Yes.

00:39

INTERVIEWER: What exactly? Strikes on Europe?

00:41

KARAGANOV: Strikes on a number of European countries.

00:44

Initially, of course, not with nuclear

00:47

munitions. And I advocate for

00:50

this being done as soon as possible.

00:52

I advocated for this to be done

00:54

…

00:55

in previous years, since we

00:57

have been waging this war for an unreasonably long time.

——

Here is Karagonov’s transcript of the complete interview, and I add links to relevant sources backing up some of his allegations, and I also add boldface for highlight passages, including ones that were used in that video:

——

https://karaganov.ru/cherez-god-rossija-udarit-po-es-bolshoe-intervju-karaganova/

https://archive.ph/Tcmgj

“‘In a year, Russia will strike the EU’: Karaganov’s extensive interview”

June 18, 2026

The war is currently being waged to exhaust Russia and, sooner or later, destabilize it internally. Therefore, it must end.

DIANA PANCHENKO

Friends, our guest today is a man respected and feared throughout the world. Sergei Aleksandrovich Karaganov, founder and chairman of the editorial board of the authoritative publication “Russia in Global Affairs,” Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and head of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Higher School of Economics. Hello, it’s a great honor, Sergei Aleksandrovich!

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Hello! I am very glad to meet you, Diana Vitalievna.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

The feeling is mutual. Sergey Alexandrovich, it’s crucial that you manage structures that shape worldviews in journalism, defense policy. And among young people, you’re essentially shaping political thought in Russia. Even Putin calls you a scary man. That’s true. Yet you claim that Russia needs to launch a nuclear strike against the West? Do you want to destroy us all?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I have never once suggested that we need to launch a nuclear strike against the West. I have said that we might have to, God forbid, launch one in order to prevent and end this terrible war that the West has imposed on us and which it is waging [against us] on Ukrainian territory, destroying millions of Ukrainians and tens of thousands of Russians. Besides all this, the overall international situation is developing in a direction where we are sliding toward a world war. We are already in one. It was precisely to restore fear of nuclear weapons that I called for their possible use. To restore this fear and end the war that the West is waging against us in Ukraine and prevent a global catastrophe. I absolutely do not want these weapons to be used. My only criticism of our leadership is that it should be prepared for the limited use of nuclear weapons, naturally, against the targets of hostile European countries [he is referring especially to UK, Germany, Poland, Romania, Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway, where the foreign drone factories for Ukraine are located].

DIANA PANCHENKO

I’ll simplify things a bit today. You say the West has stopped being afraid, nuclear weapons have ceased to be a deterrent. You say “in case of extreme measures,” you explain, you have an escalation ladder, you describe in detail what measures should be taken. But you say the West will be afraid. I have a very simple question: what if it isn’t? What if it isn’t afraid? What if a nuclear strike only leads to escalation?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I’m fairly well versed in the history of nuclear strategy, among other things. I’m 99%, maybe 99.9%, sure that if Russia, God forbid, launches a series of nuclear strikes on Europe — and that would be a grave sin, because nuclear weapons are special weapons, and a huge number of innocents would suffer — if Russia decides or is forced to launch such a series, it will all be over quickly. Either everyone will flee, or, if anyone else starts to twitch, another series of strikes will follow. I’ve written about this in the open press. Unfortunately, a significant part of Europe will disappear. This is terrible, because Europe is our neighbor, and although I don’t consider Russia to be part of Europe (and thank God!), many of our spiritual and cultural roots are there. But this war, which the United States unleashed, imposed, and provoked for quite a long time, was also aimed against Europe, in order to divide Russia and Europe and never allow them to unite. This war is currently being waged by Europe’s crazed elites [he’s not denying that the U.S. Government initiated it on 25 July 1945]. I think that if they don’t stop, then, alas, we’ll have to — first, of course, take a few steps up the ladder of non-nuclear escalation, but I’m afraid we’ll have to.

(The editor, Panchenko, adds: “Karaganov’s escalation ladder consists of several sequential stages: stage one – a loud announcement of a revision of the nuclear doctrine, an official lowering of the threshold for use (done); stage two – a demonstrative increase in the combat readiness of strategic nuclear forces publicly, so that the West can see (done); stage three – the redeployment of nuclear weapons, for example, deployment in Belarus (done in 2023); stage four – exercises practicing a nuclear strike (since 2023 they have become regular and more frequent); stage five – a demonstrative warning explosion in an uninhabited area or over unpopulated territory to show resolve; stage six – a single nuclear strike on a military target on the territory of an unfriendly country (in his texts – Eastern European countries, NATO members, organizers of support for Ukraine); stage seven – a series of nuclear strikes on a group of targets in Europe, if the West does not come to its senses after the first one.”)

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Unfortunately, about 20, 30, or 40 years ago, Europeans, and to a large extent Americans, stopped fearing nuclear weapons and stopped fearing war. And this is frightening, because Europe is the poster child for all the greatest evils and calamities of humanity, including two world wars in a single generation. In Europe, the worst of its history is coming to the surface.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

As someone who is under European sanctions for anti-NATO propaganda, this also surprises me a bit, because I’m doing nothing wrong except constantly calling for peace. In 2024, at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, you told Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin that it might be necessary to bring the Europeans to their senses with a heavy blow, and he replied, “I hope it never comes to that.” He called you a terrible person. Do you know if Vladimir Vladimirovich’s opinion has changed since then?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Even if I knew Vladimir Vladimirovich’s opinion, I wouldn’t report it. That’s one thing. Secondly, I’m absolutely certain that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, just like me, doesn’t want the use of nuclear weapons. But I demand that he and our elite be prepared for it, prepare for it, and, in a pinch, use them. Moreover, I’m now openly proposing: if Vladimir Vladimirovich finds it difficult to make this decision (I understand it’s incredibly difficult), let him appoint a tough general as Commander-in-Chief in the European Theater of Operations who will use nuclear weapons. Perhaps then the European elites will come to their senses even before that happens, since they’ve now degenerated to the level of mice. They’ve become incredibly stupid; this degradation has been going on for quite some time, but it’s led to the horrific results we’re seeing now. There’s no one in Europe to talk to right now.

DIANA PANCHENKO

We see how Zelensky and the Europeans, through him, are constantly pushing for escalation. I’m convinced that the West and Europe’s main goal is to unbalance Russia and, if not achieve military defeat, then force Russia to militarize and prevent it from developing. In that case, doesn’t your logic play into the West’s hands?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

The West, or rather the United States of America, has been deliberately provoking this war for years, in order to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, or weaken it, and then turn their attention to China. The Europeans, meanwhile, are simply in a state of incomprehension; they believe the very idiocy they themselves utter—for example, that Russia is planning to attack Europe, which simply makes us laugh out loud. How much do you have to pay to keep us out? We still need to decide whether to use nuclear weapons, but I hope to end this war. And the war is currently being waged to exhaust Russia and, sooner or later, destabilize it internally. Therefore, it must be stopped. Moreover, people are dying, and although a significant portion of Ukrainians are anti-Russian, I feel sorry for those who die on the Ukrainian side, and even more so for our own soldiers. This war must be stopped.

DIANA PANCHENKO

War weariness seems to be growing in Russia, among other places. Drones are striking infrastructure and reaching deep into Russia. Do you understand the true state of the front and the economy? And does Russia have a plan? Because these are seemingly very difficult times.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Plans are currently being discussed. I believe there’s growing determination to launch far more serious attacks—both against Ukraine and against those European countries directly involved in the aggression against Russia. I think this will happen within a year.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

In a year? What exactly? Strikes against Europe?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Strikes against a number of European countries. Initially, of course, with non-nuclear weapons. I advocate for this to be done as soon as possible; I have advocated this in previous years, since we have been waging this war for a senseless period of time.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Do you name Germany and Britain?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

First and foremost, Germany, Romania (because Romania is the source of arms shipments to Ukraine), and, unfortunately, Poland. But first and foremost, it’s Germany. Revanchism is resurfacing. Germany is becoming what it has been for the past 150 years — the main source of evil in Europe. And Europe itself… I want to remind everyone, including our potential Ukrainian listeners who yearn for Europe: Europe is the spawn of all the greatest evils of humanity: racism, colonialism, countless wars, and genocides.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Our Ukrainian listeners… You know, in Ukraine, the phrase “European values” is very common. I don’t know about Russia, but the European standard of living is still often heard.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

This is a bad joke. European values are nationalism, fascism, serial genocides, colonialism. Europe got rich by plundering the entire world, killing millions, destroying and suppressing civilizations. Europe is the spawn of all human evils. And our Ukrainian neighbors, not understanding where they were going, rushed to join this Europe? I felt sorry for them. What can you do? Poor education.

DIANA PANCHENKO

In your interviews, you say you don’t believe Trump wants peace because it’s more profitable for him to sell weapons to Europe, so that it can supply Ukraine, and thus weaken both Europe and Russia. But do you think Putin believes Trump wants peace? And what, then, is the “spirit of Anchorage”?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I haven’t spoken with Vladimir Vladimirovich, and even if I had, I wouldn’t tell you what it was about. I hope he doesn’t trust Trump, of course, but is trying to find a way out of the situation, perhaps hoping that if we stop the war, opportunities will later emerge to end it permanently. Because if we conclude only a temporary ceasefire now, the provocations will continue, and we’ll still have to lash out even more harshly at both Ukraine and Europe. Therefore, I don’t believe in a partial solution. And the “spirit of Anchorage” is a trap, I write this frankly. But we are trying to use this small opportunity to stop the war. I think this opportunity is negligible, but we can try.

DIANA PANCHENKO

Is it even possible that the US and Russia will become allies rather than adversaries?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

No.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Why? It seems logical.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

We are completely different. More different than with China. We share a border with China and, incidentally, a common history. But with the Americans, we are mentally different. You know, allies are only against someone. And against whom? Against China, God forbid. The Americans tried to pit us against China, and they partially succeeded, partly due to our own stupidity. We absolutely do not need good relations with the United States; we need normal, civil, calm relations. And the overall goal of Russian policy, I believe, is to create conditions for the United States to retreat with dignity to the Western Hemisphere.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

You know, there is an opinion among the US elites – for example, Mr. Curtis Yarvin or Mr. Buchanan – that it is very beneficial for Russia and the US to be allies, and that, on the contrary, it is beneficial for Russia and the US to be friends, for example, against Europe.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

There’s absolutely no reason for us to be friends against Europe. The point is, in the optimal future configuration, Russia, China, the United States, and India should form a kind of quadrilateral of shared global leadership.

But that’s over the horizon. For now, we must endure a long period of wars, which will inevitably arise because the load-bearing foundations of the existing world order have been torn out, including by the Soviet Union and Russia—but we didn’t know that. After all, when we sought parity, we wanted to ensure our own security (we were still united with Ukraine then), and we tore the foundation of its five-hundred-year dominance from under the West, and especially from Europe: military superiority, which underpinned its economic and cultural dominance and the ability to siphon resources. That’s why Europeans (not all, many don’t understand this) hate us. And rightfully so—we deprived them of the opportunity to plunder the world. And now they will suffer from their prosperity, which was largely built on plundering the world.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Will Russia go to war with Europe? I mean a direct confrontation.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I hope this doesn’t happen. And if it does, there shouldn’t be any Europe left.

DIANA PANCHENKO

Many say they are not ready to fight.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Yes, they’re currently whipping up war hysteria to justify their failures and, in part, to revive the sagging economy through military spending. They’re not ready for war yet; there’s no Hitler there.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Will they be ready?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

We need to make sure they’re not ready. And if they are ready to launch a preemptive strike, that’s why I say: if they continue the war they’re waging against us with the hands and bodies of Ukrainians, we need to start attacking Europe sooner or later.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

You often say that a world war is already underway. But if it escalates further, for example, between the US and China, Russia, or Europe — where on Earth would be safe?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

The United States and China will not go to war. It will be a very complex configuration, and the next 20 years will be very unstable. China is developing its own stable nuclear arsenal, and the Americans will under no circumstances attack a nuclear power. As for Europe, unfortunately, war is possible because there are practically no people at the helm who understand what they’re doing. I call them mindless hyenas, a vicious pack of dogs. It’s terrible. Incidentally, I was one of the founders of the Institute of Europe and was a Europhile in my youth, but when I immersed myself in this and understood what Europe is, I quickly became first a Eurosceptic, and then a hard-line anti-European.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

What advice would you give to the average person, given everything you’ve said as a scientist? How should they prepare for anything? I don’t know, we’re in a kind of… well, you could say, a bunker today. Should we look for a bunker, buy or build a house in Siberia, buy property in Australia—who has that kind of opportunity? That’s some practical advice. And what do you do?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

In practical terms, demand that your governments end the war. That’s all. And for the Europeans, if they’re still sane (of course, there are sane people, they’ve been cut off from us, by the way, and it’s not just us under sanctions—all Europeans are under sanctions, they’re forbidden from communicating with Russians), my advice to ordinary Europeans and the European deep state, or, to put it bluntly, the plutocracy: you’ve put puppets in charge of your countries, and these puppets have gone mad. Replace them.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Regarding Ukraine. I keep saying that in the first few years, Zelenskyy’s approval ratings were based on the “Kyiv in three days” myth—that Ukraine had repelled Russia’s attack on Kyiv and therefore had already won. Do you think there was even a plan to take Kyiv in three days?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Unfortunately, I think someone in Russia thought this was a mistake. We entered this war too late, yes, because I believed that if it had been necessary, an ultimatum should have been issued back in 2018, and I proposed that. On the other hand, we entered this war unprepared. When we entered the way we did, I was very worried, even got sick. I believed that the war, unfortunately, was almost inevitable; I thought it would start sometime in 2024. It turned out the way it did.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

If it hadn’t started in 2022, what then?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

If it hadn’t started in 2022, it would have started in 2024, and then the war would have taken on a different scale from the very beginning. Russia made many mistakes. One of the main ones was that we didn’t use our nuclear potential, even politically. We should have done so politically from the very beginning. Well, we wrote all sorts of documents about the escalation ladder, we should have conducted exercises and nuclear tests. Now, including after my calls, we have begun supplying nuclear weapons to missiles in Belarus and many other launch vehicles. These are steps up the escalation ladder. Let’s hope they will be read before we have to use the weapons themselves.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

And here, by the way, is the “Oreshnik” missile. When it was first used, many said it was Putin’s masterstroke, a trump card up his sleeve. But the latest strikes in Ukraine—I follow Ukrainian propaganda very closely—were even ridiculed, as if they were just a joke. And then Putin himself said they’d hit a barn. Don’t you get the feeling that people are no longer afraid of the “Oreshnik” missile?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Naturally, the “Nut” [the “Oreshnik” or ”hazelnut tree” missile] is feared if it’s armed with a nuclear warhead. It’s a terrifying, effective weapon, and we must be prepared to use it. But we’d prefer it not be used, because millions of people, including children and innocents, would die.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

At the same time, you emphasize that it is impossible to attack Ukraine with nuclear weapons? Am I correct?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Yes, because a significant portion of our people, kindred and close to us, live in Ukraine. But it could come to that. I hope the war doesn’t continue indefinitely; I really wouldn’t want that.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

In Russia, one often hears complaints about the country’s failure to target decision-making centers — the Bankova, the Verkhovna Rada, and so on. Is this a mistake?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

This was a mistake. We should have attacked. But the fact is that our society and leadership felt that we were one people. We are not one people. There are many people in Ukraine who are culturally close to us, but Ukraine developed very differently. Unfortunately, we did not wage the war decisively enough, which led to unnecessary losses on both our side and the Ukrainian side.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

You know, there’s a surprising story about the Russian president: in Ukraine and the West, he’s portrayed as a dictator and a monster, while in Russia, on the contrary, he’s often criticized for being too soft. But what is Putin really like?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

He’s a very smart man. I’ve been watching his development closely, and I admire him in many ways, but he’s indecisive, not decisive enough.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Few people can truly speak about this with the courage you do. Again, you say you overlooked and underestimated. But was it really not clear that terrible Russophobia has been thriving in Ukraine for the last 30 years, with all those Azov marches? I speak as someone who witnessed it all from the inside. For 30 years, we were told, every day, that Russia was the source of all our woes. I wrote countless essays in school on the topic “How unfortunate we are,” and that Russia was to blame for everything. Well, because everyone wrote those essays. I was born in Mykolaiv and never studied Russian — it wasn’t taught in school or university. Given all this, seeing how it all started with jokes about Muscovites and ended with Russophobic protests, was it really not clear that we weren’t expected with flowers?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Unfortunately, self-delusion has taken hold in Russia, believing we are a united people. Incidentally, we are not united for another reason: Russians are a national people, we do not have racism or chauvinism, and we are very culturally open. Note that, despite the war, there is no anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Russia.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

In Ukraine, they don’t believe this. In Ukraine, they think that if you come to Russia…

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

We still have the Shevchenko Embankment, the Hotel Ukraina, Ukrainian restaurants, and we sing Ukrainian songs in huge numbers. But we truly are a different people. I feel sorry for the people who have fallen into or driven themselves into this war trap, but I don’t want Russia and Ukraine to unite.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

What do you think should happen to Ukraine?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

The optimal option would be to annex the southern and eastern regions to Russia, and let everything else be a buffer, neutral.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

So, in your opinion, Odessa should be with Russia? Whose should Odessa be?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I think so. It’s a truly Russian city. Moreover, it’s used for transporting weapons. But, generally speaking, I’ve been advocating for many years for the center of Russia’s spiritual, economic, and political development to shift to Siberia. Our future is there. The sources of Great Russia’s power were there—until Yermak went beyond the Urals. Rus’ was an Eastern European state; Ukraine simply didn’t exist back then. If we hadn’t annexed Siberia — the source of our greatness, wealth, and power — we wouldn’t have survived. I believe we need to move as quickly as possible to where we belong. Returning to Siberia is a return home. Russia is not a European country, although many Russians would disagree with me. Our external spiritual roots come from the south — Byzantium, Palestine, the Muslim world, the Buddhist world — and our political system comes from the Great Mongol Empire, under which we were vassals for 250 years and which the Russian state later copied. We are a great northern Eurasian country. This is our essence and our future. [I have several times argued “Why Russia will need to relocate its capital — perhaps to Novosibirsk.” My argument is geostrategic, instead of ethnic (which Karaganov’s is).]

DIANA PANCHENKO:

At the same time, I feel there are many inconsistencies. For example, I’m watching the BRICS summit broadcast, and a federal TV presenter is seen holding an iPhone and wearing Valentino shoes with a huge logo. Many in Russia were delighted by the arrival of Elon Musk’s father, whose Starlink is currently, to put it mildly, causing Russia a lot of problems. Do you get the feeling that Russians are still trying to please the West?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Yes, that’s the feeling. But the special military operation also brought Russia enormous benefits. Although it’s a shame that we have to pay for it with lives, we have become much more independent, we have come to understand who we are, and we have developed our science, technology, and industry. We have gotten rid of the “comprador elite” — that’s what the Portuguese called the merchants who served them in their Asian colonies. We had a comprador elite, and the entire Ukrainian elite was comprador, 100 percent. This is a completely corrupt elite that was not engaged in building its own state. This is the tragedy of the territory called Ukraine. But Russians, a significant number of them, still feel that we are Europeans. I explain to my friends: I know Europe well, I’ve been there a lot, I had property that was taken away, I had an apartment in Venice that I loved very much…

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Do you regret?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Certainly.

But I say it openly: to be a Europhile in Russia now means to be mentally insufficient and morally unclean, given the Europe that exists.

But there was another Europe, from which we received a lot, but it ended about a hundred years ago.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

How long do you think the war in Ukraine will last?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

It has been going on for a very long time, but I hope and I firmly advocate that we move sharply up the escalation ladder and begin to inflict much harsher blows not only on our opponents in Ukraine, but also on a number of European countries.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

So, you’re against reaching Lviv? Are you saying Ukraine shouldn’t be absorbed? Absolutely not? For example, Kyiv and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra—the Third Lot of the Mother of God. Horrible things are happening there today: parties, monks have been evicted from the Lavra—simply horrific.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I feel sorry for the Ukrainian people, who are losing their spiritual roots, because the Lavra is our shared spiritual roots. But I don’t think we need to reclaim Kyiv, especially if it means losing so many lives. I love Kyiv, I always have, I have so many warm memories of Ukraine, but God forbid we unite with today’s Ukraine. Because they are a different people, who, moreover, have degenerated into something worse due to the betrayal of their elites and Western influence. There are wonderful people there, but most of my friends from Ukraine are now in Russia or elsewhere.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

What would you say to Ukrainians who are watching us now?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Ukrainians? Stop the war. We don’t need your territory, except for a few territories that will become Russian. And we certainly don’t need a single piece of Europe. When people in Europe say we’re preparing for some kind of war, it provokes Homeric laughter here. It’s like accusing us of wanting to seize a garbage dump, while Europe turns into a moral garbage dump.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Can Russia lose?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Russia could exhaust itself, so sooner or later it must move to much more decisive action. There’s no point in continuing this bloodletting, no point in sacrificing our best men. We must act decisively.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Certain theories are increasingly being discussed. For example, the creation of the Trilateral Commission in the early 1970s—three global blocs: North American, European, and Japanese. In this scenario, Russia would either be divided along the Ural Mountains (from the Atlantic to the Urals) or incorporated entirely into Europe. Is such a dire scenario possible?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

You know, I was the only Russian member of the Trilateral Commission, so I know quite well what it’s like. Now I believe that Russia, together with India and the Arabs, needs to create a horizontal organization of elites (not Western ones) and invite positive Westerners to join, especially since there are a huge number of worthy people in the West. But we must free ourselves from the terrible yoke under which we lived for 500 years. We call it the Mongol yoke, but the European yoke was just as terrible for most of the world, including causing enormous harm to us.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

What idea is Russia currently offering the world?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Well, I’m working on the “Russian dream idea.” What is a person for? To serve their family, their community, their homeland, their state, and God. That’s the first thing. The second is extreme cultural openness. The third is extreme religious openness. And the fourth: Russians are a nation of warriors, and we protect the weak. Russia should set an example for the world as a unique state entity—there are no others like it in the world. After all, the Buryats are Russian, the Circassians are Russian, the Yakuts are Russian, and yet we preserve their culture. I’m proud of this unique feature of my country; it’s our treasure.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Now, in your opinion, is Russia playing its own game or someone else’s?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

For now we are playing someone else’s game because we act indecisively.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

You say that being a Europhile in Russia today is criminal. You interact a lot with young people at the Higher School of Economics and elsewhere. Do you see young people in Russia still wanting to move to the West, or has something changed?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I see that more and more of our young people are becoming patriotic and desiring the West less and less. We must address this systematically. But that doesn’t mean we should reject all the good that came from the European journey begun by Peter the Great, which brought us so much benefit in the first 150 years. We wouldn’t have had great literature or great music. But it should have been completed sometime by the end of the 20th century. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen, and the Soviet Union and Russia were left with yet another European disease—godless communism.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Could all this have been stopped, could all this have been avoided?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

This could have been avoided if Alexander III, who wanted to move away from Europe, had lived another 10 years.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Could modern Russia have avoided everything that is happening now, including the war with Ukraine?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Of course. We should have avoided this. What’s happening now is partly our fault. At some point, our elite became obsessed with the disease of economism; we were constantly counting money. When I was working on Ukraine during the first 10 or 11 years of our marriage, people would ask me, “Seryozha, why are you working on Ukraine? Yukos is worth more than Ukraine.” It was a terrible, shameful operation. Our elite is a disgrace to Russia. I hope we’re getting rid of this disgrace.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Do the elites themselves understand this?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Well, some understand, some understand little by little.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Through your prayers, I understand. Why did Russia lose Moldova and Armenia?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Firstly, we haven’t lost them; they’ll remain somewhere nearby. Secondly, this is the result of us getting involved in this war without acting decisively enough; we devoted all our intellectual, political, and economic resources to fighting the West. One of the reasons we were drawn into the war was the weakening of our international influence, which partially succeeded.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

In some sense, is this all because Russians are simple?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Yes, Russians are generally simple-minded. But there are also cunning ones, I assure you.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Well, Russia, I mean Russian policy in particular. When the Americans were buying up advanced young people, creating grant organizations and foundations — I saw it all, I watched it happen in Ukraine. I understand that the Russians thought, “Well, we’re providing cheap gas, cheap resources, so what? We’re our own, they’re not going anywhere.”

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

This was a grave mistake by the Russian elite, which at some point became ill with the shameful disease of economism.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

These days, you often hear young people in both Ukraine and Russia say, “What about the older generation? The old guys don’t understand anything. But Jobs and Musk — they’re cool.” What would you say to these young people?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Be human. And a human is someone who sees their calling in serving their family, friends, homeland, state, world, and God. Be human.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Your quote: “The advent of nuclear weapons is the result of the intervention of the Almighty, who was horrified to see that humans, the Europeans (and the Japanese who sided with them), had unleashed two world wars in a single generation, and handed humanity the weapons of Armageddon. Now that fear has disappeared. The fear of nuclear escalation must be restored, otherwise humanity is doomed.” This is from your article: “The Use of Nuclear Weapons Can Save Humanity from Global Catastrophe.” It seems to me that with these words you have already answered the question “Who are you to say this?” Isn’t it hard for you to live with this? Isn’t this responsibility burdensome?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

It’s hard for me. It’s a responsibility. Moreover, I perfectly understand those who are struggling with the same problem.

But I tell everyone frankly: using nuclear weapons is a gigantic sin. But not using them and allowing our country to collapse, ultimately allowing a global thermonuclear war, is a mortal sin. We must choose between a grave sin and a mortal one.

If we do not use nuclear weapons and stop the world from sliding into a series of wars and a major thermonuclear war, we will be committing a monstrous offense before the Lord God.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Do you feel like there’s any responsibility on the other side? Is there even a concept of good, evil, or responsibility there?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Unfortunately, we see that in Europe — while there are certainly normal people there — the understanding of good and evil has been lost. The situation in America is slightly better, with a larger segment of thinking and responsible people, but even there, modern civilization is leading to a blurring of the understanding of good and evil. This is one of the greatest challenges facing our country and all of humanity.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Are specific people personally to blame for what happened to Ukraine and Russia, or was it inevitable?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

The Russian elite is to blame for what happened to Ukraine. Specific people who didn’t understand where this was leading. I spent 10 years (from 1991 to 2001) in Ukraine, bringing together Russian and Ukrainian elites to avoid this war. But, unfortunately, I repeat, the Russian elites were obsessed with economics, consumed by the plundering of their own country and enriching themselves. This is our sin, for which we are paying.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Were there decent people among the Ukrainian elite?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Yes, yes, there were. But there are no more of them left; they’re no longer in Ukraine.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Do you have a personal red line after which you would say: “No, even for the sake of state interests, this is unacceptable”?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I believe that everything is permissible for the sake of preserving the state.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

If right now, at this moment, you could give advice to any two people on the planet and you knew for sure that they would listen to it, who would they be and what advice would you give?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I advise the Russian leader to be more decisive and move decisively up the escalation ladder in the hope that we will not be forced to use nuclear weapons. But I urge him to be prepared to use them and to prepare our armed forces and the country for it.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Is there anyone else on Earth you would like to give important advice to, besides the President of the Russian Federation?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Why should I give advice to anyone else?

DIANA PANCHENKO:

This is very valuable. What are you afraid of, not as a scientist, but as a person?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I am such a strange person – I am afraid of almost nothing at all, except one thing: helplessness.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

What do you dream about?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I dreamed, I had fifteen dreams, all of them came true.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

All of them? Can you share any? The most harmless ones?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

The most harmless one – I dreamed of falling on the battlefield, like Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, and seeing the blue sky.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

The sky above your head?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Yes, the sky. And I did it. At some point, when I was almost an old man, I started racing a completely crazy horse across the fields, broke my stirrups, and broke all my ribs. But when I came to, the horse had galloped away, and I was lying in a field and saw the blue sky. Even though I had eight or nine broken ribs, I said: that was it.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Wonderful! Sergey Alexandrovich, will Ukrainians and Russians ever live in peace? And is it even possible that we’ll even fight together against someone?

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

I hope we won’t have to fight together. I hope Russia wins, and then we’ll live in peace.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Thank you very much for this interview. I hope that at our next meeting, which I sincerely believe will happen, we will have more positive and good topics to discuss.

SERGEY KARAGANOV:

Thank you. Things are going well now. I really like what’s happening in Russia and what’s happening among the global majority. I like that the world is becoming increasingly free, diverse, and colorful. I’m proud that the Soviet Union and Russia played a key role in this, because we knocked the foundations out from under the Western yoke and liberated the world. And I like the direction this world is heading.

DIANA PANCHENKO:

Thank you. Sergey Karaganov was with us. Thank you, friends.

——

(Those translations were from the original Russian.)

On 14 June 2026, I headlined “Why Mearsheimer Falsifies the History of Ukraine’s War” and closed it by saying (which is relevant to close also the present article):

There was also another guest interviewed on June 13th by Professor Diesen in that same video. It was the prominent Russian Professor Sergey Karaganov. On 14 July 2023, Russia’s RT News had published my response to him, “Amid talk of a preemptive nuclear strike on NATO from Russia, why doesn’t Moscow try this instead? The country should engage NATO members with proposals for bilateral agreements, which will also help them to regain sovereignty”, which was my response against Karaganov’s proposal that the next major step up in Russia’s escalation of this war in defense of Russia should be nuclear. He, yet again, is now advocating for Russia to go nuclear against Europe (as-if the EU and NATO have not, themselves, been agencies of the U.S. regime). My proposal for Russia to make these treaty-offers prior to any such escalation, failed to provoke any response from Karaganov or anyone else in Russia in 2023. But I still believe that Putin should try it before escalating this war to the nuclear level of conflict. Karaganov even said, to Diesen, at 18:18, “If we use them [nukes], we would win the war.” But the reality is instead that if this war escalates to the nuclear level, the outcome would be not win-lose, but lose-lose for both sides, because within the first two years of the nuclear explosions, half of all humans will already have died-off from it. There won’t be any ‘winner’ from it. Neither in the U.S. empire, nor in Russia, is this reality being publicly discussed. Every rational person has reason to be severely concerned about this failure. It is a failure not only by governments, but by academics, and by billionaires (whom they serve). It is an enormous failure by ‘the experts’.

Incidentally, for anyone who still thinks that the U.S. Government is anything other than a racist-fascist (i.e., ideologically nazi) imperialist-supremacist global billionaires’ dictatorship that constantly lies against the nations and Governments that it is trying to overthrow and replace by its nazi stooges so as to expand further their empire of evil, the best single news-site to disillusion such individuals is, in my opinion, Max Blumenthal’s The Gray Zone, which, I believe, has done more than any other to expose the lies that are in our ‘news’-media and ‘history’ books, and to establish the truths that the U.S. regime constantly suppresses in order to continue to deceive their public. It is the central location for understanding the evil empire’s (the only remaining empire’s) ceaseless ongoing deceptions.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.