Interview by Vestnik Kavkaza
46 people died and 214 suffered during a fire started by extremists of the radical "Right Sector" in the Trade Unions Building in Odessa on May 2. There has been no reaction to the actions of the radicals from the West. The situation around Ukraine was commented on by the American media analyst William Dankerli in an interview to "Vestnik Kavkaza".
- A terrible tragedy took place in Odessa a few days ago. How did such tragedy become possible at all in broad daylight just a few blocks away from the police and fire departments, in your opinion?
- It is hard to know from the media reports because there are so many conflicting reports on what's happened. Some of them say that the people that they are calling "pro-Russian groups" were on the roof and that they dropped Molotov cocktails and started the fire that burned down the building. There are other reports that there were pro-regime demonstrators from the street that started the fire. So there is so much conflicting information that it is really hard to know what happened.
- How would you evaluate the reaction in the world? Would you agree if I say that practically there was no reaction? I mean, people died - well, no big deal.
- Well, there was little reaction. The White House reacted saying that the United States mourns with Ukrainians the heartbreaking loss of lives, but Ukraine, the whole situation in Ukraine has not been a big story in the United States. The news here has been dominated for two months by the missing airplane in Asia. So Ukraine has not been a big news item here even though it is a very significant geopolitical issue.
- But it is still very high on the U.S. foreign policy agenda.
- One would think, but even there you see a lot of false information. The general theme that seems to be emanating from Washington is that there is fear that something is going to march across Eastern Europe and try to reconstitute the Soviet Union. There is no factual basis given for this, but this seems to be the overall theme.
- Some experts, some observers say that what right now is happening in Europe and around Ukraine, for example the latest statement from the European countries that Ukraine will not get money unless it calms the East and South-East regions of Ukraine... Do you think it actually pushes the situation to the edge, to the civil war?
- I am not sure that a civil war is under way, but I am also not sure how the central government is going to exercise control, because the problem that is current now is because it is lacking control over parts of Ukraine and in many of the parts where the central control is not in existence there is a belief that the central government is illegitimate.
- If we take a broader look at the geopolitical picture in the world, do you agree with a statement that if Russia gets involved in the Ukrainian crisis more and probably with its military as well, if there is some kind of military intervention in the eastern and south-eastern parts of Ukraine, that will actually play into the hands of the U.S. and Western countries at the end of the day?
- It certainly could although there are continuing calls for Putin to put a stop to the unrest. That is predicated on the assertion that Putin is behind the unrest.
- What do you think should happen in order to resolve the issue?
- It is really hard to envision a peaceful resolution of it right now. There are so many sides telling different stories that don't match the facts. I was looking just a little while ago about some dispatches from February 23. The Kiev Post reported "Parliament votes 328 to 0 to impeach Yanukovich." On the same day Radio Free Europe which is sponsored by the U.S. run a story asking "Was Yanukovich's ouster constitutional?" It made a legitimate point that there wasn't an actual impeachment. So you have to hear two sides of the story and unfortunately it looks like the U.S. government believes the Kiev Post rather than Radio Free Europe and has adopted the police that there was a constitutional transfer of power and started imposing sanctions. I was joking with a friend recently and said: maybe the sanctions that should be imposed should be against people such as John McCain and Victoria Nuland and others who have been involved in stirring up conflict in Kiev.
- My last question will be more or less, let's say, philosophical. What do you think is in the way of good, friendly relations between the U.S. and Russia? We came close to being partners so many times and yet for some reason we keep on drifting apart. What do you think is the main problem between Washington and Moscow?
- Well, for a while I traced the problems to stories that were complicated by political enemies of Putin. Boris Berezovsky, for instance, was involved in stipulating a lot of false stories that gained a lot of attention in the Western press. With him not around any longer that doesn't seem that that could be the source. But there is a source or stories that mischaracterize what is actually going on. That really creates a problem in bringing about a realistic partnership. There was a big obstacle with the Georgian war, where the predominant story here was that Russia invaded Georgia. There was very little follow-up when the EU did an investigation and concluded that Georgia had shot first. I think there are a lot of Ukrainians that want to have a peaceful country and it seems to me that their aspirations are being spoiled by outside forces on either side of the country that are interfering with the aspirations of Ukrainians to have their own country and to ave a country which is at peace. Unfortunately they have not elected leaders that have been able to promote that.
