Window on Eurasia: Putin’s New Man at NATO Urges Russian Nationalists to Infiltrate Moscow Regime

Paul Goble

Baku, January 13 – Several years ago, President Vladimir Putin jokingly said that he and a group of security officers had successfully carried out a penetration operation inside the Russian government. Now, even more disturbingly, his choice for Moscow’s representative at NATO has urged extreme Russian nationalists to do the same thing.
In a statement on the portal of the racist Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) yesterday, Dmitriy Rogozin, to whose appointment NATO has given agrement, called on his fellow radical nationalists to infiltrate the Russian government and seek to influence its “evolution from the inside” (http://www.dpni.org/articles/lenta_novo/7230/).
Here is an informal translation of Rogozin’s brief open letter:

Dear Friends! The president of the Russian Federation V.V.Putin by his Decree has appointed me head of the Permanent Representation of the Russian Federation at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). I consider this decision of the Chief of the government as a chance for interesting and responsible work, important for my country.
I recognize that for many this degree was something unexpected. For in recent times, our relations with the party of power have not been without difficulties. But the fact that our political views and professional skills are required corresponds to my desire to work for the Motherland and to serve Russia.
I call on my comrades, comrades-in-arms and supporters to boldly integrate themselves in the power structures, including and above all the executive branch of power and influence its evolution from the inside. At this turning point for our Fatherland, when is being decided which path Russia will follow and whether our country will recover its status as a great power, patriots cannot stand aside.”
-- Dmitriy Rogozin

Given Rogozin’s own views and the even more extremist positions of DPNI, it is hard to say which is the most appalling: Putin’s decision to send the Rodina leader to Brussels, NATO’s willingness to grant him agrement, or Rogozin’s view here that radical Russian nationalists can now secure places at the highest levels of the Russian state.