Supreme Allied Commander in Europe of NATO, General Philip Breedlove, said at discussions of the North Atlantic Council today that Russia was initiating a “hybrid war” scenario in Moldova and Transnistria. In his words, a similar scenario was seen in Crimea, in Eastern Ukraine. The general noted that NATO members should decide what their obligations in situations like Ukraine should be.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who will leave the post on October 1, admitted yesterday that the Alliance had failed to improve relations with Russia, the latter viewing NATO more as an enemy than a partner.
Andrey Baklanov, deputy head of the Association of Russian Diplomats, blames the Alliance for ruining relations with Russia
- How will the situation around Ukraine affect the foreign policy of Russia and NATO?
- The situation clarified the true intentions of NATO and demonstrates how the Alliance treats its partnership obligations. Even if the Ukrainian crisis is settled and everything gets back to normal, relations [between Russia and NATO] in terms of trust will not be back at the starting point. Because the NATO authorities crossed a certain line, and in terms of the very persistent push of its interests, and in terms of the persistent presentation of invalid, incorrect and often false information, in terms of propaganda against Russia, covering the points of tensions.
I think it was a big mistake, not for NATO, but for the people taking authoritative posts.
Now, we are talking about a crisis of expert potential in Western countries. This is very dangerous because incompetent people talk about serious things. Or is it the opinion of a very unskilled specialist, or indeed is it the way a big and powerful country forms its policy?
Whatever the case, in recent months the factor of trust that more or less existed between us and the West has been lost.
- Now we see rising threats in the Middle East, the strengthening of the Islamic State…
- The word “Islamic” should be put between quotation marks. Who those people are and their relation to Islam is yet to be found out. We have already seen plenty of chancers in our country (in the Caucasus) or abroad, they did not even know how to pray and were absolutely unfamiliar with the ethical postulates of Islam. Yet they dared to say that they were the representatives of Islam. We see analogical variations in other countries.
At first glance, IS seems like a big mafia structure with suspicious ties with Muslim and non-Muslim countries. We have seen something similar, though in a different form, the same vague international conspiracy, we have seen, for example, in Somalia, where militants had the most advanced equipment and they were evading persecution when they were given satellite data about a pursuit planned for them. So it is important to be very careful here and see potential foreign influence. People suffer from IS. It is the most important development on the territory of lacerated Iraq and equally lacerated Syria where the primary incentive for all the events was more the foreign aggressive influence than the mistakes of the authorities.
- In the context of the worsening situation in the Middle East, the process of a “Kurdish rebirth” is occurring. How dangerous is the process for Turkey, on the territory of which Kurds live?
- On the one hand, we can understand the Kurds, they are tired of promises to be granted civil and other rights but they do not have those rights. In a human way, we can understand their will to have more clarity in their fate. On the other hand, the formation of a Kurdish state will possibly need such long-term steps in figuring where the territorial border will run. This completely new feature of territorial disputes may create a heavy precedent. Resolving the Kurdish issue requires extreme caution.
- At the end of August, the California State Senate passed a resolution on recognizing the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. Do you think this is normal? Can we say that, taking into account some world order crisis, we are seeing a crisis in diplomacy?
- This issue requires a moderate position. Even if you show sympathy towards a new formation, you should show understanding towards the one whose feelings may be hurt. Nagorno-Karabakh is historically conditional and the evil intention of certain groups of people who have successfully driven a wedge between two nations that had been living normally in the light of Perestroika reforms, hopes. At that time, the situation could have been easily settled, but they did not allow it, on the contrary, they escalated nationalistic moods. Now the case has gone far, because it has become a symbol in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the fight for clarification of the owner of Nagorno-Karabakh. One should be very cautious here and never play along with nationalism.
The diplomat talks about NATO, the Kurds and KarabakhSupreme Allied Commander in Europe of NATO, General Philip Breedlove, said at discussions of the North Atlantic Council today that Russia was initiating a “hybrid war” scenario in Moldova and Transnistria. In his words, a similar scenario was seen in Crimea, in Eastern Ukraine. The general noted that NATO members should decide what their obligations in situations like Ukraine should be.NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who will leave the post on October 1, admitted yesterday that the Alliance had failed to improve relations with Russia, the latter viewing NATO more as an enemy than a partner.Andrey Baklanov, deputy head of the Association of Russian Diplomats, blames the Alliance for ruining relations with Russia- How will the situation around Ukraine affect the foreign policy of Russia and NATO?- The situation clarified the true intentions of NATO and demonstrates how the Alliance treats its partnership obligations. Even if the Ukrainian crisis is settled and everything gets back to normal, relations [between Russia and NATO] in terms of trust will not be back at the starting point. Because the NATO authorities crossed a certain line, and in terms of the very persistent push of its interests, and in terms of the persistent presentation of invalid, incorrect and often false information, in terms of propaganda against Russia, covering the points of tensions.I think it was a big mistake, not for NATO, but for the people taking authoritative posts.Now, we are talking about a crisis of expert potential in Western countries. This is very dangerous because incompetent people talk about serious things. Or is it the opinion of a very unskilled specialist, or indeed is it the way a big and powerful country forms its policy?Whatever the case, in recent months the factor of trust that more or less existed between us and the West has been lost.- Now we see rising threats in the Middle East, the strengthening of the Islamic State…- The word “Islamic” should be put between quotation marks. Who those people are and their relation to Islam is yet to be found out. We have already seen plenty of chancers in our country (in the Caucasus) or abroad, they did not even know how to pray and were absolutely unfamiliar with the ethical postulates of Islam. Yet they dared to say that they were the representatives of Islam. We see analogical variations in other countries.At first glance, IS seems like a big mafia structure with suspicious ties with Muslim and non-Muslim countries. We have seen something similar, though in a different form, the same vague international conspiracy, we have seen, for example, in Somalia, where militants had the most advanced equipment and they were evading persecution when they were given satellite data about a pursuit planned for them. So it is important to be very careful here and see potential foreign influence. People suffer from IS. It is the most important development on the territory of lacerated Iraq and equally lacerated Syria where the primary incentive for all the events was more the foreign aggressive influence than the mistakes of the authorities.- In the context of the worsening situation in the Middle East, the process of a “Kurdish rebirth” is occurring. How dangerous is the process for Turkey, on the territory of which Kurds live?- On the one hand, we can understand the Kurds, they are tired of promises to be granted civil and other rights but they do not have those rights. In a human way, we can understand their will to have more clarity in their fate. On the other hand, the formation of a Kurdish state will possibly need such long-term steps in figuring where the territorial border will run. This completely new feature of territorial disputes may create a heavy precedent. Resolving the Kurdish issue requires extreme caution.- At the end of August, the California State Senate passed a resolution on recognizing the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. Do you think this is normal? Can we say that, taking into account some world order crisis, we are seeing a crisis in diplomacy?- This issue requires a moderate position. Even if you show sympathy towards a new formation, you should show understanding towards the one whose feelings may be hurt. Nagorno-Karabakh is historically conditional and the evil intention of certain groups of people who have successfully driven a wedge between two nations that had been living normally in the light of Perestroika reforms, hopes. At that time, the situation could have been easily settled, but they did not allow it, on the contrary, they escalated nationalistic moods. Now the case has gone far, because it has become a symbol in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the fight for clarification of the owner of Nagorno-Karabakh. One should be very cautious here and never play along with national
