In the Thick of events: Gennady Zyuganov interview about middle east current events

Gennady Zyuganov, “Russia 24” TV channel, June 27, 2025 —

– We will discuss the main topics of domestic and foreign policy with the head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction in the State Duma, Gennady Zyuganov.

Let’s start with the Middle East. How do you assess the escalation we have seen and do you believe in a long-term ceasefire?

 – I was everywhere there, on the eve of the wars with Iraq – I was in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and I know the situation well. There will be no peace and quiet there without the confident influence on this region, first of all, of Russia, BRICS and the SCO. There will be none!

But it is very nice that President Putin held talks with everyone. And, in my opinion, many listened to him. Because stable and normal negotiations were ensured, when one or the other side trusts us. In my opinion, this is very important. Well, and Trump, apparently, wants to get the Nobel Prize. He boasts that he quickly stopped the conflict.

You see, the war there is of a terrible nature. When the Palestinian people were offered two options: either flee your native land, or we will kill you. And Europe and the whole world remained silent, actively helped this, supported Israel.

In my opinion, we need to work more closely with the entire “underbelly” of the Russian Federation, because the strategic plans of the United States… I studied, wrote a whole book on this topic, about globalization – “The Fate of Humanity”. One of the regions is the Middle East, where it was necessary to destroy their traditional statehood and generate an abundance of refugees. Many can flee to us from there, and then the Caucasus and Central Asia will be ablaze.

They destroyed Iraq, we had 150 thousand people working there. You could put a stick in West Qurna, and the oil would gush. We built infrastructure there. Syria was our strategic ally in the Middle East. They managed to squeeze us out of there to a large extent. We had excellent relations with Libya. I negotiated with Muammar Gaddafi in the desert. Mubarak, the leader of Egypt, studied with us. They threw him in jail then.

Now we have built relations in which the Arab world is coming to us, Africa is supporting us. Not a single country, although dependent on NATO and Europe, nevertheless supported the sanctions. The same in Latin America. Now we are preparing a large meeting of the Arab world. And the very fact that even those who did not want to do so yesterday are willingly coming to our meeting, and to the meeting with President Putin, to the St. Petersburg forum. This shows that peace is needed there.

And, in my opinion, Israel felt that it was better to have peace. The Iron Dome turned out to be not very reliable. I looked, including on CNN, at the destruction of many civilian buildings.

Now is the time for serious negotiations. Let us do our utmost to facilitate this.

– And what do you think will happen? Will it not turn out that Iran, on the contrary, will now intensify efforts to create nuclear weapons against the backdrop of these strikes and the suspension of cooperation with the IAEA?..

 – I think Iran will restore cooperation with the IAEA. There was no possibility of creating nuclear weapons there. But I partly understand the fear that exists in Israel. I have tested nuclear, chemical and bacteriological weapons. I served three years in special intelligence to combat these formidable weapons.

As for the objects, they are buried, and although the Americans have these huge bombs, 14 tons each, they dropped 12 of them… But you have to hit the object exactly. If there is rocky soil, it won’t penetrate, if the rock is soft, it will be up to 50 meters or even more. In my opinion, a lot has survived. But first you have to look, count. But in the near future there will be no such opportunity – that is my point of view.

– But you said that Trump can claim, as some believe, the Nobel Peace Prize. And what do you think, is Trump worth such a prize?

 – Of course, it’s not worth it. But on the other hand, he’s proud. He stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan. He said he would ensure peace in Ukraine. But he already tried to park Greenland, it didn’t work. He tried to take Canada, it didn’t work either. And there are problems with Mexico. So far, he’s only renamed the Gulf of Mexico. That’s not enough for a Nobel Prize.

He is a businessman and he approaches everything from the point of view of a deal. And the Nobel Prize should be awarded for great ideas, great feats, for high spirituality. I have never heard a word from him about the soul, or about justice, or about friendship.

So don’t rush with the Nobel Prize. Obama was awarded, but how many abominations, how many conflicts! By the way, aggression in Ukraine began with him, when they began to form the Nazi-Bandera scum. And under their leadership, it unleashed a war in native Ukraine.

– You mentioned India, Pakistan, now Iran, Israel. Who’s next?

 – We need to understand that if we strengthen BRICS and the SCO, and there is every reason to do so… I watched the parade carefully, I have been to all the parades over the past 40 years. And Xi Jinping, the Chairman of the PRC, and Putin were sitting at the parade. Two people on whom world politics largely depends. They determine the weather today. I saw how 13 countries marched in the Soviet military-industrial step along Red Square. I understood that we had revived much in the military-industrial complex. And I felt the desire of these forces to propose new courses.

The course that Putin and Xi Jinping have proclaimed is encouraging, because Putin said three years ago that capitalism had reached a dead end. And he raised a toast to justice and friendship. Xi Jinping says that without social justice and socialism with Chinese characteristics, we cannot cope. He recently met with Lukashenko, and Lukashenko has shown in the post-Soviet space that if we rely on Soviet achievements and increase them, we can double the potential. And today Belarus is among the five safest and most prosperous countries in the world. Do you know this? This is very important.

So, moving in this direction, we can stop the aggression that is being ignited by European leaders, NATO members. And Europe turned out to be empty in terms of raw materials, and they desperately need to park near our resources. Instead of continuing the tradition of the Germans, who received cheap gas, established normal contacts, business circles and were competitive. They themselves refused this, and now they have fallen apart. Europe’s biggest problem is that they are not competitive with such a policy. And only a resource base will save them. We have one in the Middle East.

Here we need to add up these potentials, because it is necessary to stop the wave of the policy that the Americans have long ago outlined. Yugoslavia, our ally, was smashed, Iraq was torn apart, Libya was turned into a bloody wound, they tried to bend Egypt, but, thank God, they held on; Syria, they parked their own there… And if from Hindu Kush to Cyprus this turns into a ruined economy, then our head will hurt for at least a hundred years.

This is felt today by both Transcaucasia and Central Asia. I want to address my friends in Baku today. They need to think about the future as much as possible, because foreign policy will be successful and peaceful only under one condition: if there are good relations with Russia. My father lost his leg near Sevastopol, he was treated in Transcaucasia, and in Baku, after undergoing treatment, he essentially got back on his feet. And he told me many kind words about Transcaucasia, about Turkmenistan.

This entire Central Asian and Caucasian strip is a zone of interest for them and for us. Right now we are discussing the CIS problems, and I am in the CIS committee, Kalashnikov, who heads it, Taisaev, just now spoke brilliantly. In Moldova, 20 thousand people studied for 25 years for free in Romania – and got what they got. If we had supported Voronin, a talented president, and his team, NATO would never have gained a foothold there. This applies to Armenia and others. Even if you take their army now, they speak English, many study there, and we have encountered this. And we have only half a thousand teachers of Russian.

We need to urgently strengthen this direction, then there will be humanitarian force, and military-political force, and communications on a personal level. We can have a smart policy, the president has outlined it, but we need to implement it much more energetically, use the people’s patriotic forces. Our Union of Communist Parties has seventeen organizations along the entire perimeter, which have a brilliant attitude towards Russia and the ideals of socialism and justice.

– Gennady Andreevich, we will definitely talk about foreign policy. As for domestic initiatives, in the context of what you just said about the CIS: a bill was introduced to the State Duma to expand the list of grounds for depriving acquired citizenship. How does the Communist Party feel about this? Will you support such an initiative? 

 – I have my own approach to this. What was the beauty and salvation of the Soviet country? We lost three wars in a row. The Crimean War with the loss of the right to have a fleet in Sevastopol, the Russo-Japanese War with the loss of the Kuril Islands and half of Sakhalin. And we should not have gotten involved in the Russo-Japanese War, where the Russian Empire was burned. It was resurrected thanks to justice and friendship. Peacefully, at Soviet congresses, we carried out a policy under which, if in the First World War no one from Central Asia fought for us, then in the Great Patriotic War people of all nationalities fought together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder.

Because we had a policy of bringing culture there. Who came to Moscow? Talented writers, composers, competition winners, excellent students. They were spiritually enriched here and returned. Who did we send there? My sister worked in Kazakhstan. We sent those who brought high culture there…

What is happening now? Come as poor relatives. Belarus has solved this problem brilliantly. We have introduced such a procedure for interaction with them. Not just migrants, but those who are needed to develop and strengthen friendship. Do you need specialists? What profile? Turners, researchers, milling machine operators, adjusters, programmers. Let’s negotiate, sign an agreement – we come, we staff… You get a job, a good salary, you get a corner for housing. Did you justify the trust? We continue the contract for two years. No? A ticket, and goodbye. Then you will regulate this without a scandal, without prosecution and so on. This is a fundamentally different policy.

This is what Lukashenko did. He has migrants working in all his factories, but he doesn’t have these problems. And we have millions running around Moscow, they don’t know Russian, they don’t know the laws. Come to the school next door, and you’ll gasp. Half of the kids are sitting there – they don’t speak Russian… And the first grade teacher is sitting there and crying. She says: these don’t understand me, and these make noise if I work with those. The problem has already outgrown itself. And we introduced a law on education for all. Kalashnikov introduced almost nineteen laws related to migrants. A lot has been regulated, but if we go down the path of prohibitions and punishments, we won’t solve a single problem.

– Your position is clear. Let’s talk about the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. You were there. What are your impressions?

 – I wasn’t just there. I attend regularly. It was a unique meeting. Especially in the conditions when the Anglo-Saxons and NATO members declared war on us. The president spoke brilliantly. I want to thank and congratulate… The president of Indonesia, a country that is in the top five in terms of population, 270 million, he says: “I have included socialism and the ideals of a powerful market, scientific and technological progress in the program.” Next, China, South Africa, in that regard. And suddenly from Bahrain the prince quotes Pushkin to me: “And for a long time I will be dear to the people because I awakened good feelings with my lyre, because in my cruel age I glorified freedom and called for mercy for the fallen” – also for humanism…

Excellent. I visited 50 stands. Tatarstan has a great stand, KamAZ is excellent. I looked at our three governors. Orlovsky – Klychkov, Russkikh from Ulyanovsk and Khakassia – Konovalov. Agreements were concluded for 70-80 billion. There is an excellent prospect ahead. In total, more than a thousand agreements were concluded, for 6.3 trillion rubles.

But, I see, Gref’s breakfast… He sent his representative there. There were 60 oligarchs of various stripes, many governors. And a panel on which our Minister of Economy Reshetnikov spoke. Oreshkin, the President’s chief economic adviser, Nabiullina, the chief banker…

You see, they had to get together and build their policy. Representatives from all over the world came there. They brought money, they are ready to make deals. Our team must act as one mechanism. At a rate of 20%, you will not sell anything. Now our yard is full at Rostselmash, there are 3.5 thousand combine tractors. At Kirovsky, a brilliant plant. General Director Serebryakov made it the calling card of our industry. One and a half thousand tractors… The largest plants are already sending their workers on indefinite leave. The automotive industry, KAMAZ. This is a machine not only for the field and the factory. This is an army machine. It is the main truck. Last year, KAMAZ collected one billion three hundred million in revenue, and this year, in the first quarter, there were twelve billion in losses.

Why? The rate, monetization, lack of proper financing, and the entire industry is in decline. The President proudly says that for two years the growth rate exceeded four percent. And now it has fallen to 0.5. And it will continue to fail with such a policy. We must immediately take measures that would provide the economy with normal financing. If you have a construction project, and it is not financed this year, I apologize, this is sabotage, we must immediately update the financial and economic course.

Volodin in the Duma understands. Mishustin understands perfectly well. I told them in the government: yours is more qualified. You work better and more intensively. But with such a monetary and financial policy, when everyone is blowing their own horn and there is no common approach, with such a rate we will inevitably fail.

Urgent measures must be taken. Rostselmash has 15 thousand enterprises. Kirov Plant has almost a thousand enterprises. If this continues, they will fall apart by September, and in October the people will come and say: “Why are you pursuing such a policy? I have no work, no salary, the construction site is not working,” and that’s it.

– First of all, the question is not about money, but about people. Gennady Andreevich, we don’t have much time left. I wanted to discuss with you the reporting and election congress. 

 – …We are going to the congress, it is on the fifth. We have prepared a program, a report. 500 copies have been sent, from the president to the governor, who is in Chukotka. Here is a complete analysis of the world financial and economic policy. The best scientists, specialists, our commissions worked on it. We published it two weeks before the congress. I sent it to everyone, I advise you to carefully look at our Victory Program. It works in people’s enterprises.

– For those who haven’t received it yet, tell us in a few words.

 – By the way, everyone got it, and we need to sit down and watch it carefully. I wanted them to see how people’s enterprises are organized. Zvenigovsky, Kazankov, pay billions in taxes alone. The best enterprises, high salaries, full social package. The Lenin State Farm is nearby. The best schools, the best kindergartens, the best technologies. Salary is 135 thousand. Usolye-Sibirskoye, the same. If at least one enterprise per district implements this experience, we will fill the shelves.

Our potatoes have quadrupled in price. This is a complete disgrace. This problem will be solved within a year. I specifically invite everyone to hold a seminar, summarize the experience and promote it tomorrow. We will solve this problem within one year.

– Will there be any important political statements at the congress? Perhaps concerning the future election campaign?  

 – In addition to the statements, we will approve the Victory Program. There will be a number of resolutions. First and foremost: anti-Sovietism and Russophobia are the two guns with which the Soviet Country was shot. I am amazed that even on the Spas channel there are people who do not understand that without Orthodox culture, without the unique experience of Soviet friendship, without the military patriotism of our Victory, we will not cope with the new challenges.

We now need to unite society, to unite. This is the main demand of the president, in his message. This is the main condition of our Victory on the front, where the Nazis and fascists are fighting against us together with 50 NATO countries. We now need to resolve this issue as amicably as possible.

– As for political unity in the CPRF, is there any?

 – Come in and have a look. We held a whole series of open party meetings. From Beijing to Havana, all the CIS countries participated… We have a very strong organization. We have a vertical parliamentary system. 12 thousand deputies. We have just become the national champions in mini-football in all genres. We beat Norilsk Nickel with a score of 7:2, won the gold cup. We are the absolute champions in chess. Yesterday – let’s congratulate our team and Afonin! – we won the first cup of all Asia. We beat the Chinese team, and India, and the rest.

So you can congratulate us. We are absolute champions. Such a team will receive support both at the congress and in society.

– Thank you for this interview. Thank you for taking part in our broadcast.