Sergey Karaganov: “We Need to Formulate a New Ideology for Ourselves and for the World, Rooted in Serving the Individual”

In the second part of our exclusive interview with Sergey Karaganov, Academic Director of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at HSE University and Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, Doctor of Historical Sciences, we discussed the key challenges facing BRICS. The main question was: will the expanded bloc become too unwieldy to make coordinated decisions? How should unity and effectiveness be maintained amid the growing diversity of its members?

– At the end of last year, you posited that the “disintegration of Türkiye” was possible. What makes you think that? And how should Russia build its dialogue with Erdogan today, given that Türkiye remains a NATO member and at the same time actively plays against Russia in the South Caucasus and Central Asia?

– You have been misled; I never said that I suppose, let alone desire, the disintegration of Türkiye. Apparently, someone has distorted my words.

Türkiye is our neighbor, and we need to cooperate. It is a historically difficult neighbor, but with which we share a vast common history. Spiritual culture, after all, came to us from the territory of Türkiye, although later Türkiye became Ottoman. The external origins of our culture came from the south, not from the West: from Palestine, Byzantium, the Muslim world, the Buddhist world. Therefore, we need to maintain pragmatic relations with them. We should also understand that the percentage of normal people who share normal human values there is much higher than in, say, the West. And in the West, there are fewer and fewer such people, and they are even being persecuted. Türkiye, for all its internal and external complexities, is a normal country.

– Mr. Karaganov, you have said that Russia is rediscovering the Global Majority. But if we look at Africa, our presence there today is mostly military and diplomatic, while China, for example, is building roads and ports. Do we risk simply remaining, so to speak, a security guarantor for Africa and missing out on real economic benefits?

– You are absolutely right, we must certainly not miss out on real economic benefits, and we are trying to do just that. The thing is, out of foolishness, we left Africa in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. Moreover, we largely had a certain dismissive attitude toward Africa as something unpromising. Now we are returning, using the tools we have. But I assure you, by providing security, we are already gaining a great deal.

That said, the Chinese have advanced much further in using Africa for their economic interests. Well, let us wish them luck, especially since Chinese investment, roads, ports, and everything else make Africa more prosperous and make it a more convenient partner, including for us.

But we must understand that in 20 to 30 years, Africa will be the continent of the future, so we need to put in the work. And we are working. About five years ago, Foreign........

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