© Alexei Nikolsky / RIA Novosti / AFPRussia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin confers with his deputy Vladislav Surkov during a meeting on the modernization of the secondary education in the Urals city of Kurgan, on February 13, 2012.
L'Express
spoke to him.Never since the start of
the Russian invasion of Ukraine has he given a political interview. Nor has he made the slightest public comment on this war that is ravaging the heart of Europe. Vladislav Sourkov, arguably Russia's most mysterious figure, has remained silent. Yet the man who 'made'
Vladimir Putin, the shadowy adviser who inspired novelist Giuliano da Empoli to write
The Wizard of the Kremlin, has a lot to say about Russia and the man who runs it. It took us some time to approach him - and convince him. This politician, who can be considered the 'architect' of the Russian political system, has distanced himself from the man he served for two decades, Vladimir Putin. No one knows what Sourkov is doing today. In the interview he gave us, he avoided the question.
Why interview Vladislav Sourkov, who represents the exact antithesis of our democratic ideal ? Was it necessary to devote a cover of
L'Express to a man who considers Ukraine to be an "artificial political entity" that can only be taken over "by force", as he declared in an interview with the Russian Telegram channel WarGonzo a few months before the start of the war? Yes, precisely. Giving the floor to the wizard of the Kremlin means, in a way, getting inside Vladimir Putin's head. Although he is no longer in power, Sourkov has no less mastered all the workings of Putinism. And that is how this interview should be understood: a rare document that shows us how Russian power, at a time of high international tension, pursues its agenda and thinks long term, a far cry from the erratic Donald Trump.
Comment: The cynicism behind Zionism's latest gambit.