Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the G20 summit in Brisbane that the next BRICS summit and an informal meeting of its leaders will be held in Ufa on July 8-9. Askar Akayev, a senior scientist of the M.V. Lomonosov MSU, an ex-president of Kyrgyzstan, described the prospects of BRICS, efforts against ISIS and the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.
- How would you evaluate the results of the G20 and BRICS summits?
- I think that Russia has a worthy place in the G20. It is one of the leaders of the BRICS states that play an important role in forming strategy and policy within the framework of the G20. Because the G20, as mentioned by a French ex-president before, is a forerunner of the world government today. It develops measures of global regulation. Now there is certainly a struggle between two powers in the G20. One the one hand, there is the G7 headed by the U.S. On the other hand, the vanguard of developing states are the BRICS states. The balance is steadily shifting towards the BRICS states, the leader of the BRICS will be the leader of the future world.
I am confident that the BRICS countries would change globalization, the new world order towards a more fair and constructive world. Temporal difficulties happen. I look at the dignity Russian President Vladimir Putin showed in such a complicated moment with amazement. It was hard for him. As a former political leader, I know how very hard it may be when such an atmosphere is created, the West can create it. I think that he came out of the situation with dignity. He did not leave the meeting, he was expressing his positions firmly. It is worthy of a leader of a great country. If he did not go, had evaded the meeting, it could have been taken as a defeat.
The G20 results are generally positive for Russia. BRICS leaders supported the Russian position unanimously. So I think that there is no isolation. You cannot consider the attitude of the G7 and Western leaders to be isolation. I think that the time will come when the G7 ends up in the same situation, then we will see how they behave.
- How would you evaluate the level of threat from the Islamic State terrorist group in the post-Soviet space?
- There is a threat and it is real. In my native Kyrgyzstan, we experienced it in the late 1990s. In the late 1990-2000s, an intrusion of thousand-men formations of radical Islamists who wanted to create a Central Asian caliphate. The forces did not disappear anywhere. On the contrary, they are being trained, they are in Afghanistan, at Pakistani bases. They have no bright leaders, but they may appear.
We see that this extremist, radical movement is shifting from North Africa to the Middle East and further towards Central Asia. So there is such a threat, it cannot be underestimated. We need to prepare and need to take preventive measures.
- What is your opinion about the prospects of settling the conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh?
- The problem has a very old history. A solution to the situation is complicated. Interethnic conflicts affecting two states are always complicated. Even when interethnic conflicts appear in one country, settling them is very hard, it takes huge constructive efforts. And here, we talk about differences between two countries. There is certainly no simple solution, but I think that it would be great if the conflict was resolved peacefully under Russian mediation. Here, Russia has influence on both sides. Russia’s mediation would help too if it managed to play a key constructive role and find a solution to the situation on a global basis that would suit both sides.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the G20 summit in Brisbane that the next BRICS summit and an informal meeting of its leaders will be held in Ufa on July 8-9. Askar Akayev, a senior scientist of the M.V. Lomonosov MSU, an ex-president of Kyrgyzstan, described the prospects of BRICS, efforts against ISIS and the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.- How would you evaluate the results of the G20 and BRICS summits?- I think that Russia has a worthy place in the G20. It is one of the leaders of the BRICS states that play an important role in forming strategy and policy within the framework of the G20. Because the G20, as mentioned by a French ex-president before, is a forerunner of the world government today. It develops measures of global regulation. Now there is certainly a struggle between two powers in the G20. One the one hand, there is the G7 headed by the U.S. On the other hand, the vanguard of developing states are the BRICS states. The balance is steadily shifting towards the BRICS states, the leader of the BRICS will be the leader of the future world.I am confident that the BRICS countries would change globalization, the new world order towards a more fair and constructive world. Temporal difficulties happen. I look at the dignity Russian President Vladimir Putin showed in such a complicated moment with amazement. It was hard for him. As a former political leader, I know how very hard it may be when such an atmosphere is created, the West can create it. I think that he came out of the situation with dignity. He did not leave the meeting, he was expressing his positions firmly. It is worthy of a leader of a great country. If he did not go, had evaded the meeting, it could have been taken as a defeat.The G20 results are generally positive for Russia. BRICS leaders supported the Russian position unanimously. So I think that there is no isolation. You cannot consider the attitude of the G7 and Western leaders to be isolation. I think that the time will come when the G7 ends up in the same situation, then we will see how they behave.- How would you evaluate the level of threat from the Islamic State terrorist group in the post-Soviet space?- There is a threat and it is real. In my native Kyrgyzstan, we experienced it in the late 1990s. In the late 1990-2000s, an intrusion of thousand-men formations of radical Islamists who wanted to create a Central Asian caliphate. The forces did not disappear anywhere. On the contrary, they are being trained, they are in Afghanistan, at Pakistani bases. They have no bright leaders, but they may appear.We see that this extremist, radical movement is shifting from North Africa to the Middle East and further towards Central Asia. So there is such a threat, it cannot be underestimated. We need to prepare and need to take preventive measures.- What is your opinion about the prospects of settling the conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh?- The problem has a very old history. A solution to the situation is complicated. Interethnic conflicts affecting two states are always complicated. Even when interethnic conflicts appear in one country, settling them is very hard, it takes huge constructive efforts. And here, we talk about differences between two countries. There is certainly no simple solution, but I think that it would be great if the conflict was resolved peacefully under Russian mediation. Here, Russia has influence on both sides. Russia’s mediation would help too if it managed to play a key constructive role and find a solution to the situation on a global basis that would suit both si
