Russian lawmaker slams U.S.

The EU and the U.S. have discussed a new round of anti-Russian sanctions at the G20 summit. Although the sides reached no agreement on sanctions, the threat of them remains. The U.S. remains the main advocate of imposing them. Alexey Pushkov, the head of a State Duma committee, believes that the sanctions are an integral part of the U.S. foreign political doctrine to preserve leadership. The official considers it a threat to Russian national interests.

“The U.S. wants to preserve what is called the American global leadership, which Obama keeps talking about. In every speech he talks about American leadership. There are two possible reasons why he says so: either because everyone forgot about it or because he thinks that American decisiveness needs to be emphasized, its leadership preserved. The problem is that the world and the U.S. came up with theories about the regress of America, the dawn of the U.S. as the world hegemon. I think that the ruling circles of the U.S. are trying to give a response to the insecurity in this role of the U.S., its inability to cope with world crises and the foreign political goals of the U.S., its inability to adapt to new realities, to impose U.S. will on others in new conditions. It seems to me that the next elections in the U.S. will be a competition for how the next party – the Democrats or the Republicans – maintain the hegemony better, even if it does not correspond to American opportunities,” said Pushkov.

According to the lawmaker, the situation in Ukraine demonstrates the foreign political ambitions of the U.S. and that China may become the next platform for their expression: “I do not rule out that the prospects may be manifested in the future and in relations between the U.S. and China, because the U.S. has been watching how China has been accumulating its economic and political power for a long time. China, according to some estimates, is now the first economy of the world. The fact that Obama and Xi Jinping signed the agreement on prevention of military clashes is a very exemplary thing; in other words, they presume that such clashes could happen. Thus, the U.S. does not want to give up the role of “first fiddle”, does not want to leave the position of first among equals, they want to be the first among unequals.”

“The EU is trying to persuade Serbia, which is not a member of the EU, to join in with the sanctions. In other words, Serbia is actually being blackmailed: you either join the sanctions against Russia or we will stop considering you as a country with chances of joining the EU.”

Pushkov considers a dependent Russia to be a weak state prone to losing and being undeveloped. “Look, we had 10 years of development (or degradation) during Yeltsin, then we spent 5 years determining whether to bet on an independent existence or becoming part of some Western areal, because we cannot become part of the Western areal, no one will let us into the EU, NATO – they are all some illusions discussed some time, they had no real grounds. What have we achieved throughout the years? Very little, but we had to make colossal concessions. Financial dependence was very high. That is why Chechnya demonstrated a lot. When we were forced to negotiate with Maskhadov, who demanded the separation of Chechnya from Russia, the U.S. played a very active role there. Chechen separatism was supported under the talks on the joint fight against terrorism. It became clear that we will have no positive prospects within the framework of the Western areal, we had no clear sum of arguments towards preservation of a non-sovereign internal policy. Then, Russia gradually moved towards the position of sovereignty.”

“Maintaining sovereignty for Russia in the condition of a unipolar world is impossible, because no one has sovereignty in a unipolar world, especially U.S. allies. All the countries have limited sovereignty. It is clear that when the market and business are very dependent on the Russian market and their authorities call for harsher sanctions against Russia, they reflect the interests of the state they depend on in a wider sense of the word, not the interests of their countries or people. Unfortunately, I see how Europe is to a great extent becoming a branch of American interests. I acknowledge another possible round of sanctions may happen, because the American hegemony needs further efforts to isolate Russia; but expecting the automatic support of Russia, when the U.S. heads efforts for the isolation of Russia and creation of the maximum amount of problems for it, I think the U.S. should have no such expectations,” concluded Pushkov.

Alexey Pushkov: “The situation in Ukraine has demonstrated the foreign political ambitions of the U.S.”The EU and the U.S. have discussed a new round of anti-Russian sanctions at the G20 summit. Although the sides reached no agreement on sanctions, the threat of them remains. The U.S. remains the main advocate of imposing them. Alexey Pushkov, the head of a State Duma committee, believes that the sanctions are an integral part of the U.S. foreign political doctrine to preserve leadership. The official considers it a threat to Russian national interests.“The U.S. wants to preserve what is called the American global leadership, which Obama keeps talking about. In every speech he talks about American leadership. There are two possible reasons why he says so: either because everyone forgot about it or because he thinks that American decisiveness needs to be emphasized, its leadership preserved. The problem is that the world and the U.S. came up with theories about the regress of America, the dawn of the U.S. as the world hegemon. I think that the ruling circles of the U.S. are trying to give a response to the insecurity in this role of the U.S., its inability to cope with world crises and the foreign political goals of the U.S., its inability to adapt to new realities, to impose U.S. will on others in new conditions. It seems to me that the next elections in the U.S. will be a competition for how the next party – the Democrats or the Republicans – maintain the hegemony better, even if it does not correspond to American opportunities,” said Pushkov.According to the lawmaker, the situation in Ukraine demonstrates the foreign political ambitions of the U.S. and that China may become the next platform for their expression: “I do not rule out that the prospects may be manifested in the future and in relations between the U.S. and China, because the U.S. has been watching how China has been accumulating its economic and political power for a long time. China, according to some estimates, is now the first economy of the world. The fact that Obama and Xi Jinping signed the agreement on prevention of military clashes is a very exemplary thing; in other words, they presume that such clashes could happen. Thus, the U.S. does not want to give up the role of “first fiddle”, does not want to leave the position of first among equals, they want to be the first among unequals.”“The EU is trying to persuade Serbia, which is not a member of the EU, to join in with the sanctions. In other words, Serbia is actually being blackmailed: you either join the sanctions against Russia or we will stop considering you as a country with chances of joining the EU.”Pushkov considers a dependent Russia to be a weak state prone to losing and being undeveloped. “Look, we had 10 years of development (or degradation) during Yeltsin, then we spent 5 years determining whether to bet on an independent existence or becoming part of some Western areal, because we cannot become part of the Western areal, no one will let us into the EU, NATO – they are all some illusions discussed some time, they had no real grounds. What have we achieved throughout the years? Very little, but we had to make colossal concessions. Financial dependence was very high. That is why Chechnya demonstrated a lot. When we were forced to negotiate with Maskhadov, who demanded the separation of Chechnya from Russia, the U.S. played a very active role there. Chechen separatism was supported under the talks on the joint fight against terrorism. It became clear that we will have no positive prospects within the framework of the Western areal, we had no clear sum of arguments towards preservation of a non-sovereign internal policy. Then, Russia gradually moved towards the position of sovereignty.”“Maintaining sovereignty for Russia in the condition of a unipolar world is impossible, because no one has sovereignty in a unipolar world, especially U.S. allies. All the countries have limited sovereignty. It is clear that when the market and business are very dependent on the Russian market and their authorities call for harsher sanctions against Russia, they reflect the interests of the state they depend on in a wider sense of the word, not the interests of their countries or people. Unfortunately, I see how Europe is to a great extent becoming a branch of American interests. I acknowledge another possible round of sanctions may happen, because the American hegemony needs further efforts to isolate Russia; but expecting the automatic support of Russia, when the U.S. heads efforts for the isolation of Russia and creation of the maximum amount of problems for it, I think the U.S. should have no such expectations,” concluded Push