Vladislav Surkov, Putin's main ideologist, on the "Russian World":

What is the Russian World? This idea, I once introduced it into the structure of state policy, when we changed ideological dates: we canceled the day of celebration of the socialist revolution and introduced National Unity Day . In Russia, after all, there was not a single holiday associated with events before the Revolution . This day became the day of Russian nationalism in its essence. There was such a task: how to speak about the Empire, about our desire to expand , but at the same time not offend the hearing of the world community .

I took this idea very seriously and still do: it is an idea of ​​the Russian World as something bigger than Russia itself. Because we are a divided people indeed, the population extends far beyond our borders. For me, what is the Russian World? This is everywhere where people speak and think in Russian, or where Russian culture is highly respected, where they see the Russian model of national development as an alternative to what they have at home, where our Putin is respected , where people are afraid Russian weapons - this is our influence. It is also any country that hopes for Russia, for its protection and patronage, that it can lean against it in case of conflict - there are a lot of such countries, both in Africa and around the world.

It is in each of us. We always look somewhere into the distance, this is a property of the Russian character, farsightedness. We, having not fully settled in some territory, want to take something else. It led us into space at a time when half of the population lived in our barracks and there was no sewage system. This is a property of the Russian character, this is the genotype, it is indestructible.

This idea of ​​the Russian World is to be above the barriers, look beyond your borders, and take as much as possible in this world, possess the world in the pure sense of the word, because Russian expansion is not selfish ... we are not a trading empire, we are an empire of no self-interest, we are an unprofitable empire — this is how we differ from the Anglo-Saxons, from Spaniards.