The title text above is also the heading for an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta dated March 1, 2023, written a little more than a year after the Feb 2022 Russian intervention in the 8 year ongoing conflict in Ukraine, with its Special Military Operation to protect the Russian peoples of the Donbass region, who had self-declared independence from Ukraine in 2014. There was never a ‘Full Scale Invasion of Ukraine’ as is the lie so loved and often repeated by Western media sources.
Here is the article, but first I want to offer a short quote from that writing which will serve as a reminder to those who see the President’s ‘soft’ approach to international dealings as a form of weakness. There is no weakness in the makeup of Vladimir Putin. Of that I am convinced.
The president is an official and cannot say everything he thinks. I will try to add a “side view”. Perhaps it will be useful for further state policy, and for the self-determination of society.
Sergey Karaganov: It is unacceptable to preserve Ukrainian statehood based on a mixture of Russophobia and the monstrous compradorism of its elites – Rossiyskaya Gazeta – Mar 1, 2023
There is much to discuss from that piece which I do not recollect seeing at the time it was written, and some of those things are quite jaw-dropping in their intent and bluntness of delivery. But I want now to resolve an omission I made yesterday, and leave the reader to make what they will of the ‘new’ old information – which I am sure is still fully valid and makes ridicule of western attempts to effect such juvenile positions as ‘ceasefires’ and ‘peace deals’, in which they will in fact have no say whatsoever.
Sergey Karaganov is a respected high level official in the Russian government and both a friend and advisor to the President. I regret my not detailing Russia’s ‘Future Plan’ in yesterday’s post on Karaganov’s more recent statement as to how that future needs to be directed. I will correct that here, by including a lengthy quote from the piece…
These Are Sergey Karaganov’s Principles For A Russian Future…
I propose discussing the principles of developing the North-South logistics framework, primarily for Russia, but not only for Russia.
First. Economic calculations are necessary, and they should be made, but the most important criterion for creating such a framework should be factors of security and long-term development. Private business can and should be involved in working on specific projects, but large-scale logistics are the prerogative and responsibility of governments. Economism as a whole is becoming obsolete, although economists are needed to help strategists and temper their enthusiasm. When S.Yu. Witte, who was not yet a count, but simply a minister, was negotiating with his allies about the need to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, there was a lot of resistance from both the financiers and the merchants, who did not want to compete with horse-drawn transportation. If Witte had not won, Russia would not have survived. I know from my conversations with colleagues how much resistance the project to build a bridge over the Lena River in Yakutia faced. The main argument against it was the low volume of traffic. If Witte had listened to these arguments, we would never have built the Trans-Siberian Railway. Instead, he organized a massive public relations campaign, enlisting the help of the greatest Russian genius, a brilliant Siberian, not only a brilliant scientist but also a prominent statesman and industrialist, Dmitry Mendeleev. Without Witte, Russia would not have won the most difficult war in human history, the Second World War, or the Great Patriotic War.
The second principle. It is necessary to move the center of infrastructure development from the European part to Siberia. Although the infrastructure in the Urals is more efficient from a narrow economic perspective. If we look at the horizon or beyond it, which is exactly what is needed now when planning a logistics strategy, the center of transport construction, as well as the center of the country’s spiritual, economic, and cultural development, should be moved beyond the Urals. It is also necessary to establish a third, fourth, or fifth capital there, relocating some corporations and ministries. I am glad that V.V. Putin has heard my calls, among others, to move some of the corporations to the regions where they primarily operate. He has signed an order to move the offices of almost 150 corporations to the places where they conduct their main production activities.
The third principle. Russia is not a maritime power, but a river power. It once sought to break free from its continental curse. Under Peter the Great and after, we made a bet on breaking through to the sea. This was the right move. However, both then and now, we have failed to capitalize on our immense competitive advantage in transportation and the revival of our country, particularly in Siberia, where we have access to powerful rivers and abundant freshwater flowing into the Arctic Ocean. This is not achieved through idiotic plans to divert the Siberian rivers.
Of course, we need to revive our river transport and connect it to other logistics corridors. In recent years, while traveling along the Yenisei and Lena rivers, interviewing colleagues who have traveled along the Ob and Irtysh rivers, and studying the literature, I have discovered that the rivers in Siberia are woefully underutilized. With the exception of the Lena River, they have lost the potential of a small icebreaker fleet, which could extend the river travel by a month or a month and a half before the establishment of winter roads. I know that the 73rd meridian program is already being developed, in particular, the revitalization of the transport corridor through the Irtysh and the Ob to the Arctic Ocean. And through the Irtysh to Kazakhstan and even neighboring China.
The fourth principle. The new transport and logistics strategy should also focus on the development and preservation of small towns, the development of a new round of Siberian exploration, and the Siberianization of the entire country.
The fifth principle. Transport corridors should contribute to the revival of the civilizational unity of Eurasia in its diversity.
The sixth principle. The new logistics matrix should not only complement the Trans-Siberian Railway and the BAM, but also be similar to the Franklin Roosevelt program, which was called the New Deal (“New Deal”). After the crisis of 1929, he launched mass transport construction not only to strengthen the transport framework of the United States, but also to provide jobs for the huge mass of unemployed, to relieve social tension. We don’t have such a crisis, but the soldiers who will return from the war with the West in Ukraine should not only join the management class, but also find promising, highly skilled, and well-paying jobs in building the new infrastructure of Siberia. Many of them will stay there and become Siberians, just like during the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline.
The seventh principle. Here, a new Russian elite will be formed, one that is not infected, like many in Moscow and other central cities, with Westernism and Europhilia, which are becoming increasingly counterproductive and intellectually убогие, as well as morally reprehensible. The new elite, and the entire country, should feel like builders of a grand project for a new Siberian Russia and Greater Eurasia. Russia needs grand projects, as they are essential for our development. The construction of a transportation network for Siberian Russia and Greater Eurasia should be such a project.
The eighth principle. When building a new North-South logistics framework, we should collaborate with our Asian neighbors at the design stage, leveraging their capabilities and expertise. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is often viewed as a competitor to the Trans-Siberian Railway, but why not approach it from a different, more appropriate perspective? We need to consider how to connect the North-South corridors with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. Then we will have new opportunities to reach Iran, Pakistan, the warm seas, India, and Africa.
The ninth principle. We need not only to create new logistics transport routes along the North-South line, but also to use them to restructure our thinking. By building new logistics routes and highways, we will move away from outdated and harmful Westerncentrism and towards a sovereign and independent mindset. The great Siberian construction projects once formed the new Russian and Soviet elite. This goal should be achieved through new projects that are not only absolutely necessary for the country’s development, but also inspiring, such as the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Northern Sea Route, the Baikal-Amur Mainline, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Bratsk, and so on.
If you read that through, taking th etime to understand the content, you will have realised that this is the future towards which Russia is proceeding with great intent to see its fruition. It is a long-term plan and one which an increasingly cratering West has no chance or even a small hope of preventing. But they may, if they play their cards right, get to share in the better future the whole world will enjoy by helping it happen and sharing in the bountiful future which is sure to emerge as a result, across all continents of this planet, among all peoples being treated as equals in a world without geopolitical poles, essential nations, Rules Based Orders, or non-essential militarism.
Not Something Else 
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