Surkov: God summons Putin to save Russia from ‘hostile takeover’

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 27, 2013) Vladislav Surkov who stepped down from the vice-premier’s position in May said his attitude to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian opposition did not change after he quit politics.

“My resignation changed nothing in the divine dimension. There is no reason to think differently,” Surkov said in an interview with the magazine Russkiy Pioner.

Surkov reaffirmed his opinion that God sent Russia Putin. “Yes, it was God. Yes, he was summoned to save Russia from a hostile takeover. A white knight arrived right on time. So to say, at the very last moment,” Surkov said in the interview published on the magazine’s website.

He dismissed as absurd the allegations he might join the opposition. “That is absurd. What about the opposition? After everything we have been through. Theyare either my opponents or even direct enemies. There will be no support to them. There will be no time break,” the former vice-premier said.

He thinks the contemporary Russian opposition is harmful and needs to be cured by society. “If their ideas are toxic, if they tell good people lies. If they, the hypocrites, are posing as saints, what shall we do with them? They have to be fought. Some say the opposition is useful. But what do we have to gain from silliness and lies? Personalities beset by the severest forms of frustration, deprivation and aggravation are unable to improve the country’s health. They should not be curing society, instead society should be curing them,” Surkov said.