http://www.fednews.ru
Gleb Pavlovsky:
During the election in Ukraine, the leader of one of the EU countries, Mr. Kwasniewski, offered a political formula that sums up [what] will be rejected in Russia officially by the majority of political forces. It can be called the Kwasniewski doctrine. His formula is as follows: it is better Ukraine without Russia than Ukraine with Russia. This concept is as anti-Russian as it is anti-European. This concept is based on the assumption that Europe will build a wall, a new line of confrontation, and countries will be asked to take sides.
We assess this doctrine as a concept designed to impose restrictions on Russia and throw it back. I emphasize once again that an attempt by any country in Europe, in the East or West, strong or weak, to encourage the doctrine of Russia's recoil will certainly create a conflict in relations with this country. This must be clearly understood. Not to say that it's stupid, it's an attempt to apply to the large number of problems associated with the consolidation of Europe some artificial geopolitical scheme that does not reflect any relevant tasks. This must be ruled out. We will closely monitor the behavior of countries with regard to this doctrine. We have noticed attempts by some Baltic countries to play this game. We will object to this, and we will reject this. By the way, another thing that has yet to be clarified is the area of Russia's interests. Some time in the future Russia will become a world power again, and it will have a global area of interests. However it is not so now. Now our area of interests is not global and does not cover the entire world.
There are a number of countries where we have our interests. And the admission of some of these countries to the EU or even NATO will not mean that they will fall out of the area of our interests. The Baltic countries are certainly within this area of interests, particularly on such issues as transit or the position with regard to the Russian language and the Russian community, the status of the Russian community in the Baltic countries. This situation will not change depending on what unions those countries join. We will certainly use their accession to new organizations to intensify monitoring of what concerns our interests and to influence them. Their EU membership has not reduced, on the contrary, it increased Russia's influence on the situation in the Baltic states. Such a paradox. In this sense, we perfectly realize this.
2 comments:
Thank you very much for posting the translation. It is an excellent article which clearly states the "Russian" position.
I don't know about it's being an "excellent article" - to me it merely reads like Pavlovsky's latest spin. But you're right, it does give Moscow's position, and that position is, or should be, a matter of deep concern.
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