PUTIN SPEAKS OUT ON UKRAINE,
CRIMEA AND US RELATIONS
WITH FRENCH MEDIA
Russia's President
Vladimir Putin (R) answers to French journalist Gilles Bouleau (L)
and Jean Pierre
Elkabbach during an interview with French media TF1 and Europe 1,
in Sochi on Jun 4, 2014.
[EXTRACTS]
Q: Mr Putin, we are now talking
about why a neighbouring country, Ukraine, is being torn apart by war. There is
no other word for it. Now pro-Russian forces want to breach Ukraine’s borders.
Who can stop them and what is your policy?
VP: I wouldn’t call them either
pro-Russian or pro-Ukrainian. They are people who have certain rights,
political, humanitarian rights, and they must have a chance to exercise those
rights.
For example, in Ukraine governors
are still appointed by Kiev. After the anti-constitutional coup in Kiev last February,
the first thing the new authorities tried to do was deprive the ethnic
minorities of the right to use their native language. This caused great concern
among the people living in eastern Ukraine.
Q: You did not let this happen
but are you saying that we are on the verge of another Cold War?
VP: I hope we are not on the
verge of any war. Second, I insist that people – wherever they live – have
their rights and they must be able to fight for them. That’s the point.
Q: Is there any risk of a war?
Now, as we see tanks on their way from Kiev, many people in France are asking
this question. Were you tempted to send troops to eastern Ukraine?
VP: This is an interview, which
implies short questions and short answers. But if you have patience and give me
a minute, I will tell you how we see it. Here’s our position. What actually
happened there? There was a conflict and that conflict arose because the former
Ukrainian president refused to sign an association agreement with the EU.
Russia had a certain stance on this issue. We believed it was indeed
unreasonable to sign that agreement because it would have a grave impact on the
economy, including the Russian economy.
We have 390 economic agreements with Ukraine and Ukraine is a member of
the free trade zone within the CIS. And we wouldn’t be able to continue this
economic relationship with Ukraine as a member of the free trade zone. We
discussed this with our European partners. Instead of continuing the debates by
legitimate and diplomatic means, our European friends and our friends from the
United States supported the anti-constitutional armed coup. This is what
happened. We did not cause this crisis to happen. We were against this course
of events but after the anti-constitutional coup – let’s face it, after all...
Q: But now we see so much tension
in politics. Yet despite this, you will be in Normandy speaking about peace while Barack
Obama keeps urging Europe to arm itself.
VP: Well, we must always talk
about peace but we should understand the causes and nature of the crisis. The
point is no one should be brought to power through an armed anti-constitutional
coup, and this is especially true of the post-Soviet space where government
institutions are not fully mature. When it happened some people accepted this
regime and were happy about it while other people, say, in eastern and southern
Ukraine just won’t accept it. And it is vital to talk with those people who
didn’t accept this change of power instead of sending tanks there, as you said
yourself, instead of firing missiles at civilians from the air and bombing non-military
targets.
Q: But, Mr President, the United
States and the White House claim they have evidence that Russia intervened in
the conflict, sent its troops and supplied weapons. They claim they have proof.
Do you believe that?
VP: Proof? Why don’t they show
it? The entire world remembers the US Secretary of State demonstrating the
evidence of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, waving around some test tube with
washing powder in the UN Security Council. Eventually, the US troops invaded
Iraq, Saddam Hussein was hanged and later it turned out there had never been
any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. You know, it’s one thing to say things
and another to actually have evidence. I will tell you again:no Russian
troops...
Q : So you do not want to annex Ukraine
and you never tried to destabilise the situation there?
VP: We never did that. The
Ukrainian government must now sit down and talk with their own people instead
of using weapons, tanks, planes and helicopters. They must start the negotiating process
Q: Do you recognize Ukraine’s
sovereignty and its neutral stance with respect to relations between Russia and
the West?
VP: Yes, we recognize its sovereignty. Moreover, we’d like Ukraine to
act as a sovereign state. Joining any military bloc or any other rigid
integration alliance amounts to a partial loss of sovereignty. But if a country
opts for this and wants to cede part of its sovereignty, it’s free to do so.
Regarding Ukraine and military blocs, this is what worries us, because if
Ukraine joins, say, NATO, NATO’s infrastructure will move directly towards the
Russian border, which cannot leave us indifferent.
Q: Mr President, Russian troops
annexed Crimea recently. Will you ever give it back?
VP: It’s a delusion that Russian
troops annexed Crimea. Russian troops did nothing of the kind. Frankly...
Q: But Crimea has been included
on the map of Russia, the kind of maps we used in school. It’s part of Russia now. What
was it, annexation or reunification? Which word should we use?
VP: If you’ll let me finish, I
think you’ll see what I mean. Russian troops were in Crimea under the
international treaty on the deployment of the Russian military base. It’s true that
Russian troops helped Crimeans hold a referendum on their (a) independence and
(b) desire to join the Russian Federation. No one can prevent these people from
exercising a right that is stipulated in Article 1 of the UN Charter, the right
of nations to self-determination.
Q: In other words, you will not
return Crimea [to Ukraine]?Crimea is Russia, is that it?
VP: In accordance with the
expression of the will of people who live there, Crimea is part of the Russian
Federation and its constituent entity. I want everyone to understand this
clearly. We conducted an exclusively diplomatic and peaceful dialogue – I want
to stress this with our partners in Europe and the United States. In response
to our attempts to hold such a dialogue and to negotiate an acceptable
solution, they supported the anti-constitutional state coup in Ukraine, and
following that we could not be sure that Ukraine would not become part of the
North Atlantic military bloc. In that situation, we could not allow a
historical part of the Russian territory with a predominantly ethnic Russian
population to be incorporated into an international military alliance,
especially because Crimeans wanted to be part of Russia. I am sorry, but we
couldn’t act differently.
Q : So you are willing to talk
and you regret what is happening? But don’t you think the United States is
trying to surround Russia, to make you weaker as a leader and perhaps isolate
you from the world? You are being very diplomatic now but you know the facts.
VP: Facts? You’ve said it
yourself: Russia is the biggest country in the world. It would be very difficult
to surround it, and the world is changing so fast that it would basically be
impossible, even in theory. Of course,
we can see attempts by the United States to pressure their allies by employing
their obvious leadership in the Western community, in order to influence
Russia’s policy.
Russia’s policy is based solely
on its national interests. Of course, we take the opinions of our partners into
account but we are guided by the interests of the Russian people.
Q. Hillary Clinton. Only a few days ago, she said that what Russia is
doing in Eastern Europe resembles what Hitler was doing in the 1930s. What was
your first reaction? Were you angry? Did you want to get back at her or laugh?
We have never seen you laugh.
VP: Someday I will indulge myself
and we will laugh together at some good joke. But when I hear such extreme
statements, to me it only means that they don’t have any valid arguments.
Speaking of US policy, it’s clear that the United States is pursuing the most
aggressive and toughest policy to defend their own interests – at least, this
is how the American leaders see it – and they do it persistently.
There are basically no Russian
troops abroad while US troops are everywhere.
There are US military bases
everywhere around the world and they are always involved in the fates of other
countries even though they are thousands of kilometres away from US borders. So
it is ironic that our US partners accuse us of breaching some of these rules.
Q: Mr President, Syrian leader
Bashar Assad has been re-elected president without much effort. Can you
influence him? Can you ask him to order his army to stop its atrocities, to
stop fighting their own people?
VP: All sides are guilty of atrocities
there, but primarily the extremist
organizations that are thriving
in Syria. We are mostly worried about...
Q: Religious, Islamic
[organizations]...
VP: ...those organizations that
are directly connected with Al Qaeda. There are many of them there, which no
one tries to deny any longer. It’s a general fact. But we are mostly worried
that the wrong action could turn Syria into another Afghanistan, a completely uncontrollable
spawning ground for the terrorist threat, including for European countries. All the terrorists who are operating there now
would eventually move to other countries, including in Europe.
Q: We don’t quite understand why
you, Vladimir Putin, the man who wants to modernize Russia, support a person
who is killing his own people, who is covered in their blood. How can this be?
VP: I’ll explain very simply and
clearly, and I hope that the majority of the French people who are watching and
listening to this interview will understand me. We very much fear that Syria
will fall apart like Sudan. We very much fear that Syria will follow in the
footsteps of Iraq or Afghanistan. This is why we would like the legal authority
to remain in power in Syria, so that Russia can cooperate with Syria and with
ours partners in Europe and the United States to consider possible methods to
change Syrian society, to modernize the regime and make it more viable and
humane.
Q : Do you have a role model in
the Russian history? Are you guided by Soviet or Russian politics?
VP: I have great love and respect
for Russian history and culture. But the world is changing and Russia is too.
Russia is part of the modern world, not the world of the past but the modern
world. And I believe it has an even greater future than some other countries
that can’t take care of their young people, of the new generations, of their
children, and believe that they can just let things slide.
Q : And the last question, Mr
President. In 2013, Forbes rated you as the most powerful person in the world.
Were you flattered by this title?
VP: You know, I’m an adult and I
know what power means in the modern world. In the mode rn world, power is
mainly defined by such factors as the economy, defense and cultural influence.
I believe that in terms of defense, Russia is without any doubt one of the
leaders because we are a nuclear power and our nuclear weapons are perhaps the
best in the world. With regard to cultural influence, we are proud of the
Russian culture – literature, the
arts and so on.
As for the economy, we are aware
that we still have a lot to do before we reach the top. Although lately, we
have made major strides forward and are now the fifth largest economy in the
world. It is a success but we can do more.
Q : We don’t know yet how
Vladimir Putin’s era will go down in history. What would you like to be
remembered for? And would you like to be seen as a democrat or an authoritarian
leader?
VP: I would like to be remembered
as a person who did his best for the happiness and prosperity of his country
and his people.
Q : Thank you very much. Have a
good trip to France, Mr President. Good - bye.
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