Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed Alexei Kondratyev, a member of the Federation Council Committee for Science, Education, and Culture, the Tambov Region senator, about current events and prospects of the Russia-West agenda.
- How do you assess the incident of violation of the Russian border by Ukrainian ships two days ago?
- It was a clearly directed well-planned provocation. It’s confirmed by the followed developments when Poroshenko imposed martial law without Verkhovna Rada’s vote to influence upcoming presidential elections and the political situation in Ukraine. We have to understand that it’s not hysteria or whipping up military tension but thoughtful steps on implementation of certain plans toward Russia. As Kiev denounced the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, it was an unfriendly act and reluctance to admit their mistakes. The situation led to the attempt to flex muscles; however, not their muscles but muscles of the international community, i.e. the West which took a pro-Ukrainian position without investigation of the conflict or clear marking a guilty side. As Russian citizens and common people, we are pretty concerned about the event which has taken place ahead of the U.S. steps on denunciation of the INF treaty and whipping up military hysteria in Europe. Kiev’s decision to impose martial law will be followed by Western economic sanctions and intensification of Ukrainian military actions. We are indignant and very concerned about the step.
One should note that the Ukrainian government’s first step was a consultation with the American side. Even before the end of the maneuvers, the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington consulted to representatives of the U.S. state services. It meant the Americans knew about everything and could directly influence made decisions and developments in the Black Sea.
- Do you agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who said that the steps could lead to the point of no return in Russia-West relations?
- Since Obama times, we haven’t seen improvement in our relations with the West; they are progressively going worse and worse. There are no positive signs from the American side and the West in general. Instead of them, incidents are happening which are met with raised eyebrows (for example, last-year developments in our consulate-generals in the U.S.). Our embassy in Kiev and consulate-general in Lviv were pelted by flares and smoke candles. However, the outraged behavior, absolutely unacceptable in bilateral relations, wasn’t criticized either by Western diplomacy or by the international community in general. They got it into the habit. How can we speak about any relationships or some positive steps if diplomacy is replaced by molestations? We need clear limits, rules, and standards of behavior which used to exist and be developed for centuries. Then, a compromise could be found. According to the normal diplomatic practice, an investigation must be set and a certain decision must be made. Moreover, a guilty side must submit apologies. Unfortunately, it’s a modern trend to accuse Russia immediately of everything. We could see that in Boeing MN-17 case and Skripal case – there are no proves but Russia is pigeonholed.
It would be a different matter if it touched only social opinion. However, the West takes such unfriendly steps as economic sanctions influencing our domestic economy, prosperity of our citizens, and the population’s confidence in the future. It causes only indignation. At the same time, they try to provoke dissatisfaction and mistrust to the Russian authorities through various NGOs. It makes us clear that these are directed well-prepared actions of influence on the internal political situation in Russia, i.e. direct intervention in the domestic affairs of the Russian state.
- Considering that, what can we expect from the upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in G20 summit in Argentina?
- The meeting itself is a positive event. Today, we have unsolvable problems in global security and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, in imposing groundless sanctions against Russia based on empty statements on supposed intervention of ‘Russian hackers’ in American elections, in compensation of lost economic benefits, and so on. At the same time, we have some spheres to negotiate, primarily our joint struggle against terrorism in Syria. We can see now that our positive steps are usually crashed by political and military actions of the coalition headed by the U.S. We are also concerned about the American support of the so-called moderate opposition which consolidates with terrorists and participate in provocations in Idlib, Deir ez-Zor, Al-Tanf, and along the Euphrates’ eastern bank.
We have certain questions on political support of the processes in Ukraine. It would be much better for the U.S. to help us to settle Ukrainian tensions, to build normal relations with Ukraine which is like-minded for us, a sister republic where a lot of Russian-speaking people live. The issue of further economic partnership, investments, long-term financing in various joint projects – from space to modern technologies – is also very important. Of course there are many problems and we hope for a common sense and Trump who is a serious leader resisting political groups and blocs in the U.S. Congress trying to influence him and is able to make decisions by his own, according to interests of the American people and interests of the Russian-American relations. We should maintain remains of our good relations built in previous decades.
