Moscow must influence the policies of foreign nations at all costs

According to a recently shared clip, Russian political analysts in the country’s state media advocated more interference in the politics of other nations “at all costs”.

The clip was first shared in the United States on Sunday by Julia Davis, founder of surveillance group Russian Media Monitor, which is dedicated to cataloging the alarming things being leaked by the country’s state-owned news networks. In the video, Henry Sardaryan, a dean at Moscow’s State Institute of International Relations, accused Western nations of using their support for Ukraine as a proxy in an attempt to overthrow Vladimir Putin’s government.

“Regarding delivery issues [of weapons]the meaning of their support to Ukraine is to endlessly prolong the conflict in order to maximize Russia’s resources and exert domestic political pressure on our country,” said Sardaryan, translated by Russian Media Monitor.

“It’s pretty obvious who they’re using, they don’t even hide it. They say: ‘We will not use tanks or anything else to overthrow the current Russian government.’ They say, ‘We have to do it with local hands.’ By “locals” they mean the people who have supported them financially and otherwise. So they have an internal resource here.”

Sardaryan further said Russia should interfere in the elections against foreign nations that have offered aid to Ukraine in retaliation for their actions. In particular, he referred to 12 national elections to be held in European countries in the coming year.

“Do we have those kinds of resources on their side? In 2023 there will be elections in 12 European countries,” he added. “These are national elections, there may be even more if some elections are early … All the stories that this would be seen as interference in their internal affairs we could absolutely spit on. If we have our own interests that require us to influence the domestic policies of other countries, then we must do so – at any cost.”

Ukraine is expected to receive a significant amount of military aid in the form of various light armored personnel carriers from states such as the US, France and Germany, which could open up new strategic options in the fight against the Russian invasion. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s chief spokesman, dismissed these new shipments, echoing Sardaryan’s statements when he said they would only “prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people”.

news week reached out to external relations analysts for comment.