Top Putin Aide: Russia Preparing For '100 Years (200? 300?) Of Geopolitical Solitude'

Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov says Russia's openness will be limited in the future.

RFE: Russia Faces '100 Years Of Solitude' (Or More), Putin Aide Says

In a provocative new essay, Vladislav Surkov, a top aide to President Vladimir Putin, says Russia is ending a centuries-long quest to join the West and preparing for “100 years (200? 300?) of geopolitical solitude.” If Russia goes this way it will be because of unwise policies, not a Western cold shoulder.

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez told of fictional Macondo, an isolated town that became a bustling city then lost its way. Russia, too, has gone off course. A glaring example is its aggression in Ukraine, of which Surkov is a Kremlin architect. The war has alienated Russia’s largest neighbor and driven that neighbor westward, and led to unprecedented Russian isolation from the West.

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Update: Russia Chooses Autarchy—and Isolation—Over Cooperation (William Courtney, Cipher Brief)

WNU Editor: The Putin aide who made this remark .... Vladislav Surkov .... is someone that I have referred to in the past as the Kremlin's "Gray Cardinal" .... Top Putin Adviser Known As The 'Gray Cardinal' Is Back After A Four Month Absence (September 20, 2013). Is Russia about to embark on 100 or more years of solitude? I do not see that happening. But as long as Putin is around, relations between the West and Russia will remain cold. And when Putin is gone .... I know there is some hope in the West that Crimea will go back to Ukraine .... but rest assure that it is not going to happen. Russia does not want that .... nor do most people in Crimea. If the West accepts that .... and with time I believe they will .... Russia will start looking to the West again.