Interview by Maria Sidelnikova, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The president of the Paris Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, a member of the Board of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, Natalia Narochnitskaya, talks to Vestnik Kavkaza about why France supports the U.S. initiative to attack Syria and about the harmonization of inter-religious relations in the Russian Federation. According to the expert, dissonances between the peoples of Russia, as a rule, have been always introduced by foreign forces .
- Natalia Alekseyevna, in your opinion, why is France so supportive of the U.S.?
- No one can explain it. All those extremists, a huge number of refugees will first of all rush to Europe, since America is far away. And Italy and France will be the first to feel the impact of this on themselves. In France a radicalization of the Muslim community will take place, which is already so big there that France has not managed to "digest" them for a long time now. There are already islands of a different civilization on the territory of a once-Christian civilization. And they are becoming more and more radical in their views. Some information is being leaked and there are facts that may lead one to suspect that, being in an economic crisis, France is receiving huge unofficial loans from the monarchies of the Gulf - Saudi and Qatar. Certainly there is also... I know, when I was in France the last time, we had a conference there, one of the princes of Saudi Arabia was there negotiating in the Elysee Palace, but there was no information about it in the newspapers. This is just speculation, but why not?
- The Holy Land essentially is a small cast of the territory of Russia, which is home to a huge number of people with all sorts of religions. How can Russia establish a dialogue between religions and harmonize the situation?
- So far in Russia, compared to the rest of the world, despite the fact that we are dissatisfied with the alleged disharmony, in fact there are rather harmonious and balanced relations. And this is a Russian tradition, since even before Christianity, in the guard of the Prince of Kiev there were people of different ethnicities, beliefs, etc. But nevertheless, I would not probably say that Russia is similar to the Holy Land, because after all in the country and in the international arena Russia is perceived as a country that has been created by a founder and a core, the Russian government, the Russian people who are Orthodox Christian. But you are right that in fact we do not ignore a fact which is a very serious factor, constantly present, so to speak, in Russian life, that is the existence of large Muslim nations, who are just as much our brothers and fellow citizens.
And in fact, all Islamic extremists around the world, throughout history, have always ad non-Islamic "conductors", who directed their extremism at the "right" geopolitical area. The same is happening in our North Caucasus. I can establish starting with the time of the Caucasian Wars the number of British emissaries who worked with Shamil during the Crimean War and especially after the Caucasian Wars ended, and how the British parliamentarians dreamed of annexing the whole territory of the Caucasus as a result of the Paris Peace marking the end of the Caucasian War, establishing a border north of the Terek River.
Nothing has changed. This is why the British occupied the whole road from Baku to Batumi in 1918 and Balfour said: "The only thing I care about is the railway, via which the oil is transported. The natives can tear each other to pieces, I do not care."
The British schooner "Vixen" unloading weapons for the Circassians was caught in the Black Sea in 1835, if I remember correctly. And there was a scandal, and London even officially apologized. Therefore one should be surprised at the Chechen committees that are out there as part of international organizations. Someone sees great profit. And no one needs an independent Ichkeria, but they need a destabilized Caucasus. With its help they can reach Stavropol, Krasnodar Territory, that is, compromise the Russian presence in the Black Sea region, an important region communication-wise.
For centuries, the Black Sea has been a sea over which wars were fought. And only someone who controls all its shores could become a master of the world. And nothing changes.
So alas, unfortunately, our Russia, where there were highlanders and Russians living together in peace and where, by the way, the Chechens and Ingush voluntarily took the oath of allegiance in the 17th and 18th centuries... All the Caucasian wars, all the conflicts were always amplified, even if there were some prerequisites of a local character, always erupted only because certainly there was such a huge international aspect present. At first, in the 19th century, the interests of Persia and Turkey were supported by Britain. Now the great powers, geo-economics, the struggle over pipelines... Compare it with the map of "velvet revolutions", with those botanical ones. One complements the other.
We can only appreciate and cherish the stability, equilibrium and experience of centuries-long cooperation and brotherhood, which always marked Russia in all the most terrible turmoils: in wars against foreign enemies, for some reason the Russian peoples were always united. There were heroes from the Caucasus as well, who went all the way to Berlin and everywhere else. This is a fact and it is true.
