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Economist Mikhail Delyagin, 37, gained entry to Russia's political establishment in 1990 when still only 22 years old, joining President Yeltsin's staff as an aide. Now supervisor of the Moscow-based think tank, the Institute of Globalization Studies, and the leading ideologue of Rodina (Motherland), a leftist, nationalist party, Delyagin vehemently opposes the Yeltsin-epoch liberalism he once loyally espoused. Rodina also criticizes Western liberal values and has campaigned against immigration with the slogan "Russia for the Russians."

Delyagin is seeking to position the party as a genuine opposition force. Delyagin dissected President Vladimir Putin's time in office in his book Russia After Putin; Is the Orange-Green Revolution in Russia Inevitable?, published last March and predicting that the present course is fraught with the danger of Russia's rapid disintegration. Delyagin sat down with TIME to reflect on the evolution of his political views.

Can you describe the trajectory that has brought you to Rodina? Back in 1990, I was an ardent democrat and a liberal. I saw the United States much as the peoples of Eastern Europe in 1945 viewed the Soviet Red Army — as the Great Liberator. However, the Eastern Europeans soon realized that the Red Army had an agenda of its own. I soon realized the same about the Yeltsin bureaucracy, which was shored up by the U.S. As an insider, I understood much earlier than most Russians that the interests of that group diametrically opposed those of the majority of the population. After that, I did what I could to block their policies.

Your recent book — Russia After Putin — is so critical it could be called "Russia Against Putin." Yet the leader of your own party, Rodina, supports Putin. My book reads more like "Putin Against Russia" than "Russia Against Putin." My analysis of Putin's policies proves that they are inexorably leading this country into a mounting systemic crisis, which will culminate in a revolution. The book reflects my personal views as supervisor of the Institute of Globalization Studies rather than that of the Rodina party; otherwise it would have been written by our party leader, not me.

Your party is like a double-decker bus. Establishment intellectuals with nationalist views are riding on the upper deck; downstairs you have neo-Nazis [Russian National Unity party members and other radicals who joined Rodina]. We are not Russian ethnic nationalists. We believe that all ethnicities in Russia must preserve their identity, but constitute one Russian nation. The lower deck crowd you refer to failed to integrate into the party because they could not accept our line. Most of them left.

Earlier this month, the TVTs TV station broadcast a Rodina party political broadcast for the city of Moscow legislature elections. The ad described dark-skinned guestworkers as "garbage" that needed to be removed from the streets of Russia. Surely this was an incitement to racial hatred? By no means. The objective was to integrate those people into Russian culture.

By calling them "garbage?" It has become really scary in some outlying areas of Moscow, where most people now do not even speak Russian. I personally have been threatened by those people, with warnings like: "Here you are no longer in Moscow." The ad's message was, Let's cleanse Moscow of anyone who won't integrate into our culture. Otherwise, we'll have another Paris here.

Your book states that Russia faces disintegration. Are you talking about something like Yugoslavia? Yes. Nothing like Czechoslovakia — no velvet divorce — is possible in this country. Consider: the regime is trying to turn the clocks back some 600 years, trying to use the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to reunite it. Reincorporating the church into the state machinery once again is deadly for the ROC, and is also an anti-Muslim policy that antagonizes Islam, Russia's second-largest religion. Meanwhile, Dagestan, a Muslim republic in the Caucasus, is exploding. We're not talking some 800,000 people like in Chechnya, we're talking four million people and 100 ethnicities in Dagestan. Should Dagestan blow up, any progress in bringing peace to Chechnya will be annihilated.

For how long can Russia hold out? The system is already breaking down. Some 15% the population, who enjoy petrodollar-induced consumerism, are growing stressed with all the loans they have to pay for their cars, vacuum cleaners and fridges. The middle class is revolting because of a lack of butter rather than of bread. Meanwhile, the other 85% cannot afford bread or butter. The starving poor live in ghettos that sociologists are scared to enter. The poor are the unseen majority. The poor are revolting because of hatred. The young feel that they are denied any opportunity or support from society.

You write in your book that a democratic revolution in Russia would see politics turning from orange — the color that has come to symbolize democratic revolution — to the green of Islam. It'll be orange-green from its inception. It'll have two components: democracy and Islam. As a result, Islam will share power on the federal level.

Your book vows to protect private property, but at the same time calls for "ensuring the state's property rights." For as long as civil society remains immature, the state must keep control over natural monopolies.

What will be the priorities for the pragmatic leaders you would like to see emerge? "A chicken in every pot" is our slogan. We'll guarantee a minimum income. The state will introduce measures to encourage having children. The state will control the quality of medical and educational services, payable by the rich and middle classes, but free to the poor. The state will modernize infrastructure that is not of interest to business. The state will retain responsibility for sciences.

How will you achieve your goals? The state will have comprehensive development programs. There also will be moderate protectionism. The state will control migration: the most important thing is a national policy. The purpose is to create a new Russian civilization. All expansionist civilizations — Chinese, Islamic, Western — have targeted Russia. We have to secure equilibrium between those three giants. Otherwise, they will tear us to pieces. Nobody will remember we ever existed. If we maintain the equilibrium, we can develop and outlast all the others. Oil gives us a great advantage in this tough process, that's why we cannot give it to anybody.

• YURI ZARAKHOVICH
• INTERVIEW: Controversial economist Mikhail Delyagin on the challenge to Putin