Director of the Center for Partnership of Civilizations of Institute of International Studies of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) Veniamin Popov discussed with VK the success of Russian diplomacy and the prospects for the development of the situation in Syria.
"The day before yesterday we had a meeting with the Europeans, the European political scientists. We say them all the time: think about what you are doing. This is not just a short-sighted policy. This is a policy that will lead you to dire consequences, as if you have not learned the lesson of Libya. Look at what you're doing. Libya is on the brink of collapse in practice. It is not known what will happen to the country. But another state – Mali – has disintegrated. Iraq disintegrates. In Africa, now, see, there's this Kenyan episode that has shown that such a powerful center of extremism is created, and they will kill primarily Westerners, they will kill Israelis. It's understandable. What are you doing? Where are you going? Your political figures think that somehow it is possible to tame these terrorists, these extremists, these terrible people - "Dzhabhat en- Nusra", and so on, I just call them criminals. Look, even the Western press considers the number of the Syrian opposition to be about 100,000 people. Of these, nearly 10,000 are "Dzhabhat en-Nusra", "Al- Qaeda", and there are 35 % of those who are... Small groups, who are in fact the same terrorists. Where are you going? You will arm them. What's next?" the expert said.
"As our president said in the Valdai: what’s next? You should think well. Perhaps soon, too, you will say, you know, that there were some mistakes, as in Iraq, that you made a mistake with weapons of mass destruction. They seem to make the same mistake. It's amazing sometimes. I wonder what the reaction of the Europeans was: "Yes, you know, we also try to do this, but we support democracy and reforms". I would say here that Assad also implements reforms supported by 60 % of the population. Look at what you're doing next. What results will you have? You will see that Tony Blair, whom now many people require to judge as a war criminal - indeed, in the end, everything will come to this . After all, he lied to the population, and so on. Tellingly, what is the answer of the Europeans? I think it is very interesting. One of them, the head of the European Centre for International Relations, said: look, the situation is changing. It does not change quickly. But look at the British Parliament, the most pro-American one, which refused to support the prime minister. He said the following sentence: you know, I think France will be the next, the French president. It is possible, but that does not help. You know, I think maybe this understanding comes gradually to the West, but it is very slow. There are too high short-term, tactical interests of certain groups, especially the ruling elite. But I still think that our very skillful diplomacy has led to the fact that after all now in New York we will be able to agree on the text of the resolution on Syria that chemical weapons is put under control, without any reference to article 7 - we have clearly told the Americans that we will never let the same resolution as on Libya be adopted. It is quite impossible. But a compromise can be found, and then the Americans align this compromise with the preparation of the "Geneva -2" conference. It will then be a major step forward. As an argument in discussions with the Americans, we say: of course, there will not be any immediate peace on Syrian soil. But first, at least we should reach the ceasefire. How will you do it? Well, 50% of the opposition maybe will accept compromises of some kind, etc. And what about the rest? How will you force them? What will you do with them? We know that they are all based in Turkey. Qatar and Saudi Arabia help them giving them a lot of money. You should work with them somehow. Otherwise, how do you want to search for the same chemical weapons? If these criminals always stop it, how will the inspectors work?" he said.
