I think a lot of what is happening in the world is maybe about balance. The last 13 years have thrown the world and the U.S. off balance. To some degree we in the U.S. can relate to Russia feeling "off balance too here in the U.S. The U.S. had a lot of fairy tale ideas in the days previous to 1990 that Russia miraculously would become like the U.S. sort of like a little brother accepting democracy and all the social norms of the U.S. However, that really was never going to happen. It was always an American fantasy that this could actually happen. The history and traditions of Moscow and Russia were always going to supercede this idea. The reality is what happened. Freedom isn't really allowed in Russia like it has been here. At least not yet. Russia isn't the U.S. so we can't expect it to be. So, maybe being more realistic on both sides is important. Russia and the U.S. aren't enemies just large countries trying to survive any way they can. China is the same thing. China and Russia cannot be the U.S. Their histories and traditions wouldn't ever allow this. So, what is happening now is a whole lot of people educated enough just move to the U.S. And a lot of business people have moved to China and Russia from the U.S. Maybe this is as good as it can get for the three biggest nations on earth.
Putin: I don’t think new Cold War will start, no one wants it
Published time: May 24, 2014 13:47
Edited time: May 24, 2014 15:00
Edited time: May 24, 2014 15:00
“I really would not like to think that this is a beginning of a new Cold War,” he said speaking with the heads of the world media at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “I think this is not going to happen.”
The ‘new Cold War’ rhetoric has been rife in the West as the situation around the Ukrainian crisis becomes increasingly tense.
Those who provoked the armed coup in Ukraine should have thoroughly weighed up the consequences that would follow, Putin stressed.
“Those who had been provoking the armed coup in Kiev should have thought, if they were real professionals, about the consequences of their illegal ambitions,” he said, adding that he hopes that what happened in Ukraine “will become a precedent which has its own negative consequences, but still would revive a conscientious attitude to international law and practice of agreeing positions based on each other’s interests,” rather than “methods of using force.”
Touching on Russia's actions towards Crimea, Putin said it was a reasonable response on the part of Russia.
“We think that [the West] tried to talk to us in the language of force, and we, using the same logic, gave a reasonable answer. But I hope that this will never, under any circumstances, happen again anywhere,” Putin said.
Russia’s leader has expressed confidence that many people living in Europe share Russia's stance on the Ukrainian crisis.
“Russia's stance over Ukraine is a fair one and European people see that," he said. "Conduct an opinion poll in Europe - I am not sure at all that the majority of citizens support their political leaders' stance on that matter. I have all grounds to assume that our position has very many supporters,” he said.
As for the Western sanctions against Russia, “I think that they are absolutely counterproductive, not based on a fair attitude to existing problems, and driven by a desire to impose on Russia international relations developments that do not correspond either with international law or with mutual interests. They certainly do not correspond with Russian interests,” Putin said.
Isolation of Russia is “impossible,” Putin stressed, adding that there is a “mutual dependence” between Russia with both the US and EU.
"Maybe damage, not minor, could be done to each other in conditions of the rather complicated situation within the global economy. And who needs this?” Putin said. "Possible consequences will be negative for everybody and may lead the European, Russian and world’s economies to turbulent processes that no one is interested in,” he said.
In fact, he stressed, “Some events which happened in Ukraine threaten Russia’s interests, first of all in terms of national security.”
Putin particularly referred to NATO’s intensified activities and possible Ukraine’s acceptance to the alliance.
“This could have been followed by not only acceptance, but also deployment of assault systems on the territory of Ukraine, including Crimea,” he said. “If this had happened, it would have had serious geopolitical consequences for Russia; our country would have been forced out from the Black Sea region, and Russia has been fighting for centuries for the legitimate right to a presence there.”
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