Russia’s future lies with the East – deputy premier

(Interfax – Chelyabinsk, April 12, 2014) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Rogozin has said that Russia’s future lies with the East, not the West.

“All our prospects lie not with the West but with the East. In the East, Russia borders on Japan, China, India is close by, the two Koreas, the entire southeast Asia. All the future history of the 21st century will be there, in the East, surely not in the West confined in the small European Union. The European Union is experiencing some psychological, mental complexes all the time, they are imposing some sanctions,” Rogozin said at a meeting with teachers and students of the South Urals University in Chelyabinsk on Saturday [12 April].

“So why have they included me in the sanctions list? Cannot go to America, cannot buy a yacht, cannot ride a luxury car. Do they think we are really going to be sad about this? We now have Crimea, we will go there,” the deputy prime minister added.

[The West is not trying to help Ukraine but wants to harm Russia, Rogozin said, according Interfax at 0837 gmt. “Look what is happening with Ukraine, how they are tearing it apart. How the West is trying to tear up the country that has always been connected with us in blood, they are actually our people. Nevertheless, everything being done with respect to Ukraine and in Ukraine, how American special services and special services of other Western states are working there, shows one thing: For them, Ukraine is not important, they are not working for the good of Ukraine, they are working to the detriment of us. For them, Ukraine is a war with Russia, the worse for us, the better for them,” Rogozin was quoted as saying.]