Russia’s relentless expansion: Surkov’s vision for a boundless "russkiy mir"
Vladislav Surkov, a former close adviser to Vladimir Putin, declared that Russia "will spread out in all directions," and the so-called Russian world (russkiy mir) "has no boundaries," as noted in a recent analysis by the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Surkov, who was considered one of the strategists of Russian policy towards Kyiv, stated in an interview with the French weekly "L'Express" that a Russian victory in the war would be the "military or military and diplomatic crushing of Ukraine" and the "division of this artificial quasi-state into its natural fragments."
"Russkiy mir"
He said that this is Moscow's strategic goal, which has not changed since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Russia will achieve it, even if there are "slowdowns" along the way. He added that the return of Ukraine to the Russian sphere of influence has been Russia's goal since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Surkov, who was Putin's advisor until 2020, also said that after the alleged division, Ukraine might "perhaps" exist as a "real state" in the future, but as a much smaller entity. In the view of the ideologue of "Novorossiya," Europe is allegedly to be involved in the future division of Ukraine.
Russia "will spread out in all directions"
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov defined "Novorossiya" as the entire eastern and southern Ukraine, including the Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and Odessa regions - in addition to the regions Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, which are already fully or partially controlled by Russia.
When asked about how he sees Russia's boundaries, Surkov replied that the ideology of the Russian world "has no boundaries" and exists wherever Russian influences are present. He stated that Russian influences vary depending on the region, but they are "never zero." The high-ranking former Kremlin representative stated that Russia "will spread out in all directions."
Russia refers to the so-called Russian-speaking cultural community of former USSR countries as the "russkiy mir". As ISW emphasised, the Kremlin uses the ideology of the "Russian world" to justify military interventions abroad.
Experts pointed out that Surkov's statements about Russia's claims on eastern and southern Ukraine and further expansion of the "russkiy mir" contradict recent assessments by the US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. An associate of President Donald Trump assured that Russia's territorial claims do not extend beyond Crimea and the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
ISW noted that in a tone similar to Surkov's, Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking Russian authorities have recently been expressing views that Moscow wants to regain control not only over Ukraine but also - possibly - other neighbouring countries, to weaken the West and strengthen the Kremlin's influence.
The Russian side emphasises that a future peace agreement with Kyiv must eliminate the "root causes" of the war. So far, the Kremlin, when speaking about the "causes" that it has also used to justify the invasion of Ukraine, has effectively questioned the existence of an independent Ukrainian state.
On March 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the "causes of the war" are "threats to Russia's security from the Ukrainian and Western directions in general," which result from NATO's expansion eastward and the alleged destruction by the Ukrainian government of everything related to "Russia and the 'russkiy mir.'"
