The Russian Ministry of Foregn Affairs organized an extremely interesting meeting in Moscow for foreign accredited journalists. The ministry officials mentioned right from the beginning not to mention the name of the representative who was going to meet with us, rather to simply write that he is a “top-ranking Foreign Ministry representative”. The meeting was aimed at the discussion on the new Russian foreign policy doctrine that was published just recently by the ministry.
The speaker denied the belief that Moscow is trying to benefit from the issue concerning America installing anti-missile defense components in Europe by not accepting the right of the U.S. to attack Iran.
“The experience of the past shows us that it is possible to come to terms,” he said. According to the ministry representative, Russia’s position on the Iranian issue is more than clear-Tehran has the right to possess a peaceful nuclear power plant and the construction of the nuclear plant in Busherum is proof of that. However, it has become very difficult to come to terms with the Americans recently.
“More than 20 years ago, I admired the U.S. government by the fact that the government officials were hand-picked, in contrast to the USSR where you had people who didn’t have the corresponding knowledge and education working in government. Times have changed and we are forced to work with people who, at the time, couldn’t even enter the ranks of U.S. government,” said the top-ranking Rusisan Foreign Ministry representative. According to him, the current U.S. authorities are absolutely certain that the U.S. is ready to solve any issue by force for its benefit and unfortunately, it has not learned from its own mistakes which showed that the attempts to make a unipolar world are condemned to failure.
America’s persistent efforts to broaden NATO to the East can be classified as the perception of the world with limits. NATO was the counterbalance of the Warsaw block and vice-versa. Now things are different. There is no block, but we still have NATO. Why? Who is it against? The answers to these questions remain non-convincing.
“We are living in different times. There is no longer any danger for which the alliance was formed to prevent. The current NATO is powerless against issues such as terrorism, illegal sale of arms, drug trafficking, etc. The leaders of the alliance must be grateful for Russia which, agreeing to work with them has completely legitimized the alliance. However, it is up to us to decide whether to co-operate or not. We have the chance to choose and if we don’t get convincing answers to the questions concerning the broadening of NATO to the East and former USSR republics’ membership, then we may put an end to our co-operation and it is then that many members of the international community will be faced with many questions concerning the existence of NATO,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry representative.
In contrast to NATO, Russia has no alternative to working with the European Union. Here everything is clear-they need to co-operate and strengthen ties.
“Whether or not united Europe may survive for 70 years, like the USSR, is a different story. After all, the two share many discrepancies and in some cases the EU has shown itself to be a huge, nonsensical organization,” announced the ministry representative. He considers energetics as one of the key factors for Russian-EU relations. Europe is seeking diversification of its energetic sources and Russia…is ready to lend a helping hand in the sense that it may provide the gas and oil pipelines. True, “European style” diversification means finding non-Russian sources, but it seems as though Moscow will play its role in this game.
In response to many questions, the representative denied the fact that Russia is of real danger to anyone and suggested simply to get rid of old stereotypes.
“Russia has changed, the world has changed; we are not threatening anyone and don’t even want to. We owe nothing to anyone. We were keeping different countries under our control for a long time due to ideology and other reasons, but that is never going to happen again”. He also emphasized that:
“Russia can do anything; there is nothing that it can’t do and that is why other countries have to show respect.”
This was said in the context that Russia may help any country with any issue, but it left a bigger impression and was perceived in a totally different sense than what the Foreign Ministry representative meant.
That “anything is possible” includes the foreign policy spoken openly about on the part of Russia with the purpose of using the “Caucasian precedent” while resolving conflicts in the entire post-Soviet territory.
“For some reason, others can’t do what Caucasians are allowed to do. This doesn’t mean that Russia will immediately recognize the independence of Abkhazia or Near Dnester. This means that Russia will claim the idea of enforcing the Caucasian version in those territories too. Let the people living in those territories determine their destiny,” said the top-ranking Russian Foreign Ministry official.
The meeting lasted 40 minutes more than the foreseen amount of time and this is unprecedented for Moscow.