Denis Sokolov was preparing the regions for “all types of violence” long before the SVO. Radical views did not prevent him from organizing seminars, which were attended by tens of thousands of deputies, politicians and businessmen. The siloviki will have to find out whether former students help Sokolov in solving new problems.
The appearance of terrorist battalions, which declared their goal to overthrow the Russian government, was one of the most unpleasant events in the course of the NMD. Since the beginning of the year, the Legion “Freedom of Russia”* and the “Russian Volunteer Corps”* (the question of recognizing it as terrorist was raised many times, but the final decision has not been made, the organization is banned in Russia) carried out two armed raids from the territory of Ukraine to the Belogorodskaya Oblast. The other day the commander of the “Legion” * with the call sign “Caesar” announced another sortie.
“Over the next month or so there will be another surprise. This will be our third operation. After it will be the fourth and fifth. We have ambitious plans,” he explained to the media.
In preparation for a new sortie, the national battalions are in a hurry to make up for the losses they suffered during previous raids. The “Civil Council” * created at the end of last year by several Russian political emigrants in Poland is responsible for recruiting new mercenaries into them (the organization is banned on the territory of the Russian Federation).
This activity is coordinated by political scientist, sociologist and coach Denis Sokolov.
“The peaceful opposition has given us nothing, we want to act. Many opened their eyes to the nature of the regime after the invasion of Ukraine. They will also understand that armed struggle is the only way to win,” he told Le Figaro newspaper in June.
Denis Sokolov rose to prominence in the mid-2000s as director of the Moscow School of Political Studies** (MShPI**) (listed as foreign agents). This institution was founded in 1992 with the support of the Council of Europe. Its creator was the Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, holder of the Order of the British Empire Elena Nemirovskaya and her husband Yuri Senokosov.
Over the years, ex-Head of the Kremlin Administration Alexander Voloshin, Arkady Dvorkovich, Sergey Stepashin, and many other Russian, European and American administrators and politicians spoke at the MShPI** seminars.
The governing bodies of MShPI** included foreigners from Western intelligence agencies. The most famous of them is former US Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and former director of the National Security Council Toby Gati. The board of trustees also included a representative of the British MI6, Rodrik Braithwaite, the former chief of the defense staff and military adviser to the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Charles Guthrie.
Nevertheless, for many years representatives of MShPI** have trained the Russian elite both in Moscow and in the regions. In the public domain, you can find information about more than 10 thousand graduates of the political school.
The list includes political technologists (Mikhail Afanasiev), ex-mayors (former head of Ulyanovsk Marina Bespalova, ex-head of Perm Igor Sapko), former and current deputies of the State Duma (Vadim Bondar, Vadim Bulavinov, Alexander Burkov, Ivan Vasilyev, Mikhail Yemelyanov, Andrey Zakharov and many others), regional politicians (ex-chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Territory Valery Sukhikh), heads of universities (head of Kazan State University Ilshat Gafurov). A trend can be traced: the more school graduates there were in a particular region, the more tense the intra-elite situation developed in it.
Representatives of business holdings (former head of X5 Retail Group GR projects Igor Kovalev, ex-deputy president of VTB 24 Bank Mikhail Kozhokin) and even federal officials (former head of Rospechat Mikhail Seslavinsky) were trained under the supervision of Denis Sokolov and Western agents.
In 2014, the Ministry of Justice entered MShPI** into the register of foreign agents. In 2021, the Council of Europe’s Association of Schools of Political Studies***, affiliated with it, was declared undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation.
After leaving the MShPI**, Denis Sokolov devoted himself to a scientific and expert career. On the RANEPA website, he is still mentioned as an employee of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting. As a sociologist and social anthropologist, he repeatedly wrote articles and gave interviews for RBC, Vedomosti and many other major federal media. Sokolov showed the greatest interest in the problems of the North Caucasus. In particular, as the head of the RAMCOM research center, he developed and presented a project for the targeted modernization of the territories of the North Caucasus Federal District.
Sokolov’s rhetoric as a researcher has always been distinguished by sharp assessments.
For example, in 2016, in the article “The Right of the Strong: How the North Caucasus Responds to Challenges,” he writes: “Both state and public institutions are degrading: there is not enough money, and it doesn’t matter at what price they will be received. The right of the strong is returning, and not only Tarzan’s “fangs itch”.
A year later, talking about attracting private companies to build a democratic society in Russia, he made a very transparent hint:
“Since we are talking about countries in which unlimited power and all resources can be seized by members of one dacha cooperative called Ozero, in which there is no one and no need to carry out reforms, the main question is: how and who will create new institutions and why is this even possible? »
At the same time, in recent years, Denis Sokolov has acted before the SVO as an expert of the Free Russia Foundation *** (recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation), a visiting researcher at CSIS (an analytical institute in the USA, based in Washington, DC). At this stage, he began to show an increasing interest in the basics of military conflicts. In one of the materials, he predicted an increase in confrontation between Moscow and the Russian regions:
“The rise of these regional identities can lead to a process of decolonization. Moreover, in the absence of fair political processes, the only option for regional elites in this conflict is to resort to violence, all forms of violence.”
In June 2019, the Ministry of Justice recognized the Free Russia Foundation*** as an undesirable organization that threatens the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of Russia.
Three years later, Sokolov decided to put the thesis of “all types of violence” into practice. After the start of the SVO, he left for Poland, where he joined the leaders of the “Civil Council” * (recognized as terrorist, banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) and led the recruitment of mercenaries to carry out military attacks on Russian regions.
“The RDK have shown that it is possible to fight with weapons against the regime and you have to fight with weapons against the regime,” he explained in a recent interview.
According to the Octagon, the security forces became interested in the extensive intra-elite connections of Denis Sokolov. Their study can give extremely unexpected results.
