In an op-ed in the Russian newspaper Izvestia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, has threatened "the further existence of the entire human civilization" if Russia ends up defeated in Ukraine by the West (which he claims aimed at the disintegration of Russia).
"There should be no ambiguity here. We don't need a world without Russia", he writes.
Below is the full text of the Izvestia article independently translated to English:
Points of No Return
By Dmitry Medvedev
Last year's anniversary - the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the USSR - took place against the backdrop of tectonic processes that originated three decades ago and in 2022 provoked powerful, destructive upheavals.
With a metallic roar, the cornerstones of the world order of the post-Soviet period collapsed, which until recently was considered, if not the best, but still more or less familiar. The international airbags did not work, and now the cracks go in breadth and depth of the entire peacekeeping system on the planet.
The reasons for what is happening can be traced back to the legacy of a long but relatively new history. After all, what we are seeing now happened more than once - at the moment when another world empire came to the end of its existence.
Let us turn to the events of the relatively recent past, which many of us have witnessed.
The beginning of the tragedy that is unfolding today in Ukraine was laid at the end of the last century. Specifically, at the moment when the Soviet Union collapsed. The powerful country for a long time rested on post-war agreements and mutual interests of the participating countries, on bloc confrontation and nuclear missiles, on food supplies to its satellites, on tractors and tanks, on “socialist realism”, although the communist regime lasted much less than the centuries-old Russian empire.
All this was looked down upon by the Western world, with the haughty squint of a winner and a sense of clear superiority. Thinking only about how to satisfy their selfish interests. And by all means continuing to push our country into the abyss to completely eliminate their longtime rival. All the good talk about equal partnership, a brave new world without dividing lines, and other beautiful-hearted rubbish was only a distraction. And they turned out to be just meaningless formulas that masked the perverted designs by our arch foes.
The various politicians who took power in the new Russia could not cope with the threat that arose. Someone due to thoughtlessness, lack of political culture and experience, and someone - sincerely mistaken in the intentions of our "new friends". Hard times there were: people rapidly sliding into poverty, and the backbone sectors of the economy, which had fallen under the avalanche of privatization, were falling into decay. Separatism flourished, hot spots formed inside the country, the Caucasus was on fire.
The then authorities - the presidents of the USSR and the RSFSR Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin - were often credited with the fact that after the death of the "communist monster" they managed to prevent anything resembling a civil war, as after the October 24, 1917 coup. It is both so and not so. The critical mass of discontent could turn into a full-fledged civil confrontation, on the threshold of which we found ourselves in 1993. But at that time no one tried to actively fan the fire of the conflict from abroad, because the Western world was satisfied with a weak, defeated, submissive Russia. All this would begin a little later, in the mid-90s. Yes, and our multinational people then showed wisdom, not allowing to "shake" the country and provoke destructive internal aggression.
The main thing that can be added as a plus to the leadership of the collapsed USSR and the first head of its legal successor, Russia, is that they did not make the most terrible mistake: they did not allow its most powerful nuclear potential to be pulled apart on the patchwork quilt newly formed on the site of a great country.
At the cost of incredible efforts, Russia gradually overcame the most difficult times. It forced them to reckon with themselves at the international level, fully paid off their external debt, and began to restore the economy and the social sphere. She regained respect for her armed forces, continued to pursue a policy of nuclear deterrence and did not allow provocations.
But history is relentless. Rome and Constantinople. Arab caliphs and Genghis Khan. The rise and inglorious death of Napoleon. "Sunset" in the colonies of mighty Britain. Europe of Charlemagne. Incas and Persians. Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia.
if you take a look at whichever of these pages in the world chronicle, you will find the same thing. After the heyday of the empire and its golden age, there is a journey to the very finale: to disintegration and war or war and disintegration . This is the world law . And so it happened with us, with the USSR, only at a slow pace. The war could have happened earlier, in the 1990s, in the first two decades of the 21st century, but it has flared up now. This development of events is connected with the inexorable and cruel course of world history. A large country dies - a war begins. Sooner or later.
The accumulated internal contradictions and resentments are too strong. Dense nationalism, primitive envy and greed arise. And, of course, the strongest catalyst for war after the death of an empire is always the countries around it, which want to further divide the collapsed power. In our case, it was the frostbitten and cynical stance of the Western world. Supercharged by the impunity, the Anglo-Saxon civilization simply went crazy on the ideas of exclusivity and fictitious messianism.
Two dates can be considered as points of no return. The first was in the fall of 2008, when the Western world supported Georgia's aggression against the Ossetian people and lifted to the skies the fool, drug addict and adventurer, who was later rejected not only by his own country, but also by a foreign one, where he cowardly fled. The aggressor was then given a quick and firm rebuff.
The second turning point is the spring of 2014, when the people of Crimea expressed their will in a legitimate referendum, returning forever to their historical homeland. In the Western world, this caused a frenzied, impotent hysteria, which continues to this day. Their convulsions are fueled by cavernous Russophobia and the desire to create a newfound Frankenstein in the person of Ukraine - a special “anti-Russia”, about which the president of our country wrote in detail. What else is there to say? Only one thing: the wise predecessors of today's brainless Western politicians said this: Deus quos vult perdere dementat prius - Whom the Lord wishes to ruin, he first deprives of reason. It was this insane hysteria, the obsessive desire to tear apart our country that ultimately led to a special military operation.
History also demonstrates something else: any collapsed empire buries half the world under its ruins, or even more . It seems that those who first destroyed the USSR and now are trying to destroy the Russian Federation do not want to comprehend this.
They harbor the delusional illusions that having the Soviet Union into oblivion without firing a single shot, they will be able to bury present-day Russia without significant problems for themselves, throwing the lives of thousands of people involved in the conflict into the furnace.
These are extremely dangerous misconceptions. They will not work. If the question of the existence of Russia itself arises, it will not be decided on the Ukrainian front but along with the question of the further existence of the entire human civilization. There should be no ambiguity here: We don't need a world without Russia.
Of course, they could continue to pump weapons into the neo-fascist Kiev regime and block any opportunity to revive negotiations. Our enemies are doing just that, not wanting to understand that their goals obviously lead to a total fiasco. A loss for everyone. Crash. The apocalypse. When the past will have to be forgotten for centuries, until the smoky debris cease to emit radiation.
Russia will not allow this. And we are not alone in this endeavor. Western countries with satellites account only for 15% of the world's population. There are many more of us, and we are much stronger. The calm power of our great country and the authority of our partners are the key to preserving the future for our entire world.
