Vyacheslav Nikonov on the terrorist attack in Crocus. Photo: Sergey Fadeichev/TASS
The first deputy chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the State Duma, the president of the Russian World Foundation, the grandson of Stalin’s People’s Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov, Vyacheslav Nikonov, spoke with KP.RU political commentator Alexander Gamov.
THE REAL NIKONOV
…- Vyacheslav Alekseevich, on Saturday, March 30, I watched with pleasure “The Right to Know” with Dmitry Kulikov on TVC, the main character was the real Vyacheslav Nikonov. In the “Big Game” on Channel One, Nikonov is still not enough, in my opinion, you are not so much in the shadows there, but you try to give your guests more space. And here, in fact, there were detailed answers to all questions. The journalists, in my opinion, were satisfied, as was Kulikov.
– First of all, Alexander, thank you for your high assessment of what I was able to do in the “Right to Know” program. The main thing is that the viewers like it, but I think it is less important if the journalists and Kulikov liked it. Yes, there are different genres on television. When you are a television presenter, you have the right to talk to everyone you invite to the studio. They are the heroes, they talk about events and you lead them to certain topics or give them general information. Well, you draw conclusions.
“I KNOW HOW WESTERN SPECIAL SERVICES WORK”
– In Saturday’s broadcast you had many questions about the terrorist attack of March 22. And I had the feeling that you know more than us where the footprints lead and who, how and when all this is paid for. This is true?
– As for my conscience, I don’t think it is very different from the conscience of journalists. Because, naturally, I am not allowed access to the secrets of the investigation. Although some echoes, of course, come from different sides… But I closely follow the informational background that is now taking shape: there are a lot of comments, assessments from people who really know something. And then I more or less imagine how Western intelligence services are structured and how they work, how they are able to target anyone. Well, the situation became clear to me immediately after the terrorist attack. After all, literally a few minutes later, John Kirby, the “talking boss” of the White House, began to express that he was (that is, behind the terrorist attack. – AG) a branch of the terrorist organization ISIS, Vilayat Khorasan, banned in the Russian Federation* I mean, did you already know who he was? For me, this was an absolutely clear sign that they (we are talking about the US intelligence services – AG) organized it and immediately started turning the arrows. The Americans, in my opinion, gave themselves away immediately, immediately. I have another question: the role of the British intelligence services.
– Yes, is that your participation?
– If you noticed, during the last week a lot of people have been arguing: are they still Americans or British? And many agreed that perhaps the British were the main ones, or at least played an important role. Because the Middle East has always been their domain to a greater extent than that of the Americans. Although lately it hasn’t been like that. And there is a very long history of how the British, using the wrong hands, organized provocations against anyone. I do not take Lawrence of Arabia there… (British archaeologist, army officer and diplomat, 1888 – 1935 – AG) But let us remember at least Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, who was killed by a crowd as a result of a terrorist attack. in Tehran. But Britain was undoubtedly behind this, and everyone knew it well. Therefore, knowledge of history, knowledge of how the world works in general, how intelligence services work and a careful analysis of what is reported in the media of different countries allows us to draw fairly clear conclusions.
– They also talked about the Israeli special services…
– To be honest, I didn’t see any Israeli traces there. But it is clear that, judging by all the payments and so on, the instructions, the payments there are mainly Ukrainian, as far as I know. Also, this was in different currencies. The information also came mainly from there, along this line…
THE FIRST PLAN OF THE WESTERN PLAN
– What other thing?
– In addition, a branch of the terrorist organization ISIS “Vilayat Khorasan”* banned in the Russian Federation – Westerners began to actively highlight. And they themselves began to shout louder: we did this. Also, on official websites that no one closes, on Western platforms. But ISIS* emerged first in Afghanistan, but then the Taliban expelled them. They were enemies of the Taliban and went with the Americans. And the head of the headquarters of the terrorist organization ISIS “Vilayat Khorasan”*, banned in the Russian Federation, actually grew up in the ranks of the Afghan army, then was in the security of Bagram airport, where there were definitely no people around random. In reality, the branch of the terrorist organization ISIS “Vilayat Khorasan”* banned in the Russian Federation is also, to a large extent, the United States.
What Western elites regret
– Now we hear the following comments: they say that the Crocus terrorists were not fully qualified, that having so many weapons and ammunition “they could have killed more.” Is there any regret about this in the Western media? I mean, is it clear between the lines that they wanted, perhaps, even stronger?
– In general, they would like to destroy Russia as a whole, so of course I think the regret that not enough people have died is present in the mind of any representative of the Western anti-Russian elite. At the same time they will say oh, how sorry we are, and so on. I think there is no doubt about it. For many centuries, their dream has been that we disappear from planet Earth, and the sooner the better. Therefore, any promotion that pushes their “big dream” in this direction will be welcomed by them. And the fact that they haven’t been effective enough will bother them, so to speak.
WHAT HAPPENED?
– Where did they, first of all, the Western intelligence services, go wrong? But our security forces managed, literally in a matter of hours, to capture the terrorists and discover much more. In general, it is an unprecedented event when the Russian Security Council, security agencies (FSB and prosecutor’s office) publicly reported what is normally not said.
“We have not always had similar opportunities to immediately catch those who committed a terrorist attack. The special services worked here with surprising efficiency. I do not rule out that these terrorists were not sufficiently professionally trained. By the way, representatives of our special services also believed that there were some elements indicating that the terrorists did not act very professionally. That they were not prepared enough…
– And thank God.
– But – enough to kill 144 people… So, talking about how professional they were, maybe someone can, but, in my opinion, this is simply blasphemy.
WHERE ARE THE ENEMIES “BLOCKED”?
– This is how the West behaved, and late condolences and early information about who did it; Generally speaking, they “blew up” this entire story, starting with Kirby and ending with everyone else. How do you rate this?
– I don’t know if they “failed” or not, I don’t know what the original plan was, yes. It’s very difficult to say here, since we don’t know all the details and I don’t think they will ever tell us. But the position of the West, in my opinion, from this point of view, was really developed unprofessionally. Because they immediately cut all the versions and from the first second of the terrorist attack until today, everyone, in unison, says the same thing: Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with this, it is ISIS*. Well, yes, and some bitter condolences… But, in fact, the West, from the point of view of its reactions, is absolutely indifferent to me. It is not indifferent to us as a source of terror, a source of war against us; That is precisely why it is important to us. It is also important for us to establish relationships with him. It is true that he cannot be expected to behave decently in any way. But we just have to understand that we are in a state of hybrid war, which is already being fought on all fronts. It is clear that we are not at war with Ukraine, but with the collective West, which uses Ukraine as its military strike force. This is the world we live in. To be honest, I don’t care what they say there. And what they do does not leave them indifferent. I believe that none of us can remain indifferent, because what they are doing is a deliberate game to destroy Russia, that is, each of us.
OUR UNIT IS A SHOCK FOR TERROR ORGANIZERS
– Was this unity of the Russians unexpected for the West? They expected some kind of confrontation to arise. But he’s not there. The people, on the contrary, demonstrated. Yesterday was 9 days, and this is pain, misfortune and tragedy for all of Russia! Wasn’t this a shock to them?
– We always come together like this and every time they make mistakes. They just don’t know us and don’t really want to know us. Therefore, they have certain stereotypes that they follow in relation to us. This stereotype, on the one hand, is that we are “savages.” On the other hand, we are barbarians. On the third side, that we are “aggressive, but weak”, and that all we have to do is push ourselves and we will crumble like a colossus with feet of clay. I mean, they have this image that has existed for centuries and doesn’t change much. And each time they were wrong, because each time they underestimated us. Both Napoleon and Hitler underestimated us. But in both cases it was the collective West. And now they underestimate when the special military operation began, which they actually provoked, Western countries. They hoped to provoke us into this situation with economic sanctions and military aid to bring Ukraine to its knees… But there really should have been disappointment, although they still believe that they inflicted some kind of serious strategic defeat on us. I don’t really see where it is. And the same thing happens here. A terrorist attack of such a plan and on such a scale as that on Crocus was probably intended, first of all, to cause psychological shock, collapse, sow panic and divide us along ethnic and religious lines. But they didn’t succeed either.
– Why do you say?
– Because now we are one society. And, as Vladimir Putin correctly noted, for all 190 ethnic groups living on the territory of Russia, our country is our Homeland. Our house. And I think our understanding of this has been strengthened these days. We pass this test. I think it’s actually very powerful.
– It’s heavy?
– This was a strong challenge. By the way, in the past we have fallen for this type of nationalist tricks of the West more than once. Whether during the First World War, when they tried to divide us into parts, and quite successfully. Well, the collapse of the Soviet Union was also “quite successful” from this point of view, from the point of view of Western politics. Therefore – yes, also in this case – a challenge is posed in the case of the terrorist attack in Crocus. But, once again, I think the country responded very, very dignifiedly.
* * *
– Our cause, Vyacheslav Alekseevich, is right…
-…And the Victory, Alejandro, will be ours. The enemy will be defeated. Undoubtedly.
– Thank you so much.
* – a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
