The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.

On its face, the remark is a sharply ironic assessment of Soviet statecraft: “realistic” here means governed by power calculations rather than by professed moral or ideological commitments. By adding “no ideals,” the speaker implies that the USSR’s public rhetoric about liberation, equality, or international solidarity is either insincere or routinely subordinated to strategic interest. In Cold War terms, the line also functions as a warning about negotiating with Moscow—suggesting that appeals to principle will not move it, and that only concrete incentives, leverage, or security considerations will. The quote’s sting comes from reversing the USSR’s self-image as an ideal-driven revolutionary project into an image of pure pragmatism.