Горизонт N2/831

RUSSIAN DENVER / HORIZON
20
N02/831 от 01.15.2016 e-mail: info@gorizont.com Simply the best
The Assad government, which
is trying to hold the country together?
Or the rebels who want
to tear it apart and fight against
this government?
BILD: What is Russia’s aim
in the Syria conflict?
Putin: I can tell you what we
do not want: we do not want
Syria to end like Iraq or Libya.
Look at Egypt: one has to praise
President Sisi for taking over the
responsibility and power in an
emergency situation, in order
to stabilize the country. Therefore
one should try anything to
support the legitimate rulers in
Syria. But this does not mean
that everything can just stay the
same. Once the stabilization of
the country has progressed, a
constitutional reform has to follow,
and then early presidential
elections. Only the Syrian people
can decide who should govern
the country in the future.BILD:
Do you seriously think that
Assad is still the legitimate ruler
in Syria? He is bombing his
own people.
Putin: Assad does not fight
against his own population, but
against those who take armed
action against the government.
If the civil population is then
By Natasha Bertrand
also harmed, it is not Assad’s
fault, but primarily the fault of
the insurgents and their foreign
supporters. Once again: this is
not supposed to mean that everything
is fine in Syria or that
Assad is doing everything right.
BILD: If there actually were
presidential elections, and
Assad loses, would Russia grant
him asylum?
Putin: It is too early for that.
But it was surely more difficult
to grant Mr Snowden asylum in
Russia than it would be in the
case of Assad. But first the Syrian
population has to be able to vote,
and then we will see if Assad
would have to leave his country
if he loses the election. In any
case, this is not a prerequisite.
Until then, Russia will fight ISIS
and those anti-Assad rebels who
cooperate with ISIS. At the same
time, we will support Assad’s
forces fighting against ISIS – but
also anti-Assad forces that are
fighting against ISIS. That is, admittedly,
quite complicated.
BILD: To what degree does
the emergence of the conflict
between Iran and Saudi Arabia
further complicate the Syria
conflict?
Putin: This conflict indeed
makes everything much more
complicated: solving the Syria
question, fighting together
against terrorism, ending the
refugee crisis. I do not want to
speculate whether a full-blown
conflict between these two
states is to be expected. Russia
maintains very good relations
with both – Iran as well as Saudi
Arabia. But it was a mistake of
the leaders in Saudi Arabia to
execute the Shiite cleric. He was
not fighting with arms in his
hands. In Russia, capital punishment
was not even carried out in
the worst times of terrorism, in
the 90s and 2000s. On the other
hand, it was also absolutely inappropriate
to storm the Saudi
Arabian embassy in Tehran.
BILD: Mr President, one last
question: when Russia hosted
the Winter Games in 2014,
there was a lot of criticism beforehand
concerning the state
of the local democracy. Do you
think there will be a similar debate
prior to the FIFA World
Cup 2018?
(After translating for almost
two hours without a break, the
interpreter is quite exhausted.
Listening to him, it seems as if
his translation of the question is
PUTIN: The deterioration of Russia’s relationship with the West
is the result of many ‘mistakes’
Russian President Vladimir
Putin told the German daily
newspaper BILD that he believes
Russia’s deteriorating relationship
with the West was the result
of many “mistakes” made by
NATO, the US and Russia after
the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“We have done everything
wrong,” Putin told BILD publisher
Kai Diekmann and BILD
politics editor Nikolaus Blome
last week, according to a transcript
provided to Business Insider.
“From the beginning, we
failed to overcome Europe’s division.
Twenty-five years ago,
the Berlin Wall fell, but invisible
walls were moved to the East of
Europe. This has led to mutual
misunderstandings and assignments
of guilt. They are the cause
of all crises ever since,” he said.
The US, the former Soviet
Union and the post-soviet states
who wanted to join NATO
should have “redefine [d] a zone
in Central Europe that would
not be accessible to NATO with
its military structures,” Putin
said.
Instead, NATO embarked on
an “expansion to the east,” allowing
the post-Soviet Baltic states–
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania–
to join the organization. This
resulted from the US’ desire for
“complete victory over the Soviet
Union” after the Cold War ended
in 1991, Putin claimed.
Putin has recently been upping
his rhetoric toward the
West. Significantly, the Russian
leader– who is currently juggling
Moscow’s intervention in both
Syria and eastern Ukraine– began
2016 by designating NATO
a “threat” in an updated paper
on Russia’s national-security
strategy.
“They wanted to sit on the
throne in Europe alone… You
can also see this striving for an
absolute triumph in the American
missile defense plans,” Putin
said in the interview, referring
to the US’ plans to construct a
missile-defense shield that Russia
has staunchly opposed.
View gallery
Russia’s annexation of
Crimea in March of 2014,
Putin told BILD, was simply
the Kremlin’s way of
protecting the people of
Crimea from being confined
within the borders
imposed upon them by the
US and Europe after the
West claimed victory in
the Cold War.
“Our soldiers have
merely prevented the
Ukrainian troops on
Crimea from impeding
the freedom of expression
of the people,” Putin said.
“For me, it is not borders
and state territories that matter,
but people’s fortunes.”
“If the Kosovars have the
right to self-determination, why
should people in Crimea not
have it?” Putin asked, referring
to the UN’s determination in
2008 that Kosovo should become
independent of Serbia.
View gallery
Putin, however, conceded that
Russia has made its own mistakes
since the end of the Cold
War.
rather cumbersome. This leads to
a brief banter about the two languages,
German and Russian.)
BILD: Is Russian more complicated
than German?
Putin: The German language
is more precise. But Russian
is more versatile, colorful. Of
course, this richness can also be
found in the great German writers.
(Putin begins to spontaneously
recite in German: “Ich wei? nicht,
was soll es bedeuten, warum ich
so traurig bin. Ein M?rchen aus
alten Zeiten, das kommt mir nicht
aus dem Sinn.” This is, almost literally,
the beginning of Heinrich
Heine’s “Loreley”, written in 1824,
a German classic. Then Putin
abruptly and impassively continues
in Russian.)
Putin: Concerning democracy
in Russia, I think: the powers
like to talk about “freedom”
in order to wash the population’s
brains. Democracy means
the power of the people and the
possibility of influencing the
governing parties. Russia had
had enough experience with a
one-party-system – we will not
go back there. We will further
develop and perfect our democracy.
77 parties are, by now, approved
for parliamentary elections.
Most governors are elected
directly.
BILD: But the political conditions
in Russia seem to differ
from a European democracy.
Putin: There is no uniform,
global model for democracy.
What you mean by democracy
differs from county to country.
This conception is different in
India and in the USA and in
Russia or Europe. In the USA,
for example, twice in history
a politician became President
because he had more electoral
votes, regardless of the fact
that his competitor had more
votes from the citizens. Does
that mean the USA are not a
democracy? Of course they are.
And concerning the attempts
to abuse sports or the World
Cup in Russia for dirty political
games: this is really stupid
and wrong. Even if states sometimes
have problems with each
other, arts and sports should
not suffer from that. Arts and
sports are there to bring the
people together – and not to divide
them.
BILD: Mr President, thank
you very much for this conversation.
“We were too late,” he said. “If
we had presented our national
interests more clearly from the
beginning, the world would still
be in balance today.”
“After the demise of the Soviet
Union, we had many problems
of our own for which no one was
responsible but ourselves: the economic
downfall, the collapse of
the welfare system, the separatism,
and of course the terror attacks that
shook our country,” he continued.
“In this respect, we do not have to
look for guilty parties abroad.”
Russia launched a military intervention
in Syria last September,
and has reportedly been bolstering
the pro-Russia rebels in
eastern Ukraine since the crisis
erupted there in 2014.
Putin continues to deny that
the Kremlin ever sent ground
troops to fight in Ukraine, stating
recently that any Russian soldiers
there are either volunteers
or “advisers.”