RIA Novosti: Russia doing all it can to help Ukraine – Putin’s spokesman

(RIA Novosti – January 20, 2015) The current stand-off between Russia and the West is ideological, informational, political and diplomatic but “thank God not military”, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitriy Peskov said in an interview with the mass-circulation Russian weekly Argumenty i Fakty, which will be published on 21 January, RIA Novosti (part of the state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya) reported on 20 January.

“Emotionally, we have really fallen into a kind of anxiety. On the one hand, the reunification with Crimea caused phenomenal patriotic enthusiasm of the whole society. On the other hand, an open stand-off with the West began – ideological, informational, political and diplomatic, thank God not military. This stand-off leads us all into expecting a crisis,” Peskov said.

Commenting on the consequences of the situation in Ukraine, he said that one of the consequences was “dominant Russophobia” but suggested that it would die down in the future. “And it started even before the conflict: through the mass media, through education programmes, starting with kindergartens and all the way to universities. It will be years before the Russophobia starts to recede, but I think it is inevitable. From a pragmatic point of view, our countries will remain seriously connected, whatever someone says about the association between Ukraine and the European Union,” Peskov said.

Even if nothing happened in Crimea, the West would have invented something else to complain about Russia, he noted. “I am sure that the West will never leave us alone. It is not about Crimea and Ukraine. Without Crimea, they would have invented another excuse. Putin said this in his address: We must be sovereign, independent, strong, but at the same time remain an integral part of the international community of the global economic system. Isolationism or self-isolationism would be wrong,” Peskov said.

“What is happening now is a substitution of notions, which only leads to an escalation of the conflict. Russia is already doing all it can to end the conflict: de facto helping the Ukrainian economy, ensuring supplies of coal, electricity and so on, sending strings of humanitarian convoys to people in need in the southeast. We cannot abandon these people to their fate… But Russia cannot resolve this internal Ukrainian conflict. In the meantime, to put it really simply, the West is trying to portray Putin as a party to the conflict, isolate him in the international politics, strangle Russia economically for their own interests, to achieve Putin’s overthrow, while demanding that he resolve the crisis in the neighbouring country,” he noted.

“The war can only end through internal Ukrainian dialogue. And only official Kiev can start it. Attempting to resolve the crisis by force is a dead end. Until Kiev begins to communicate with its own regions, people will continue to be killed there,” he added.

Commenting on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement that there is no chance that Putin will be invited to the next meeting of G7 leaders, Peskov said that Putin was not expecting to be invited anyway. “On the other hand, there is a general question about the appropriateness of the format: Why is G7 needed, what can it resolve without the participation of Russia, India and China?” he said.

Peskov also answered questions about Putin’s private life (“any politician has the right not to publicize his private life”), said that Putin always receives “accurate and complete information”, and denied any connection between some successful businesses and their owners’ friendship with Putin.

[featured image is file photo]