RIA Novosti interview with DFM Grigory Karasin (Moscow, 8 August 2012)
Question: Mr. Karasin, it has been 4 years after the war in August 2008. To your mind, can we say that the state South Ossetia established itself?
Answer: Certainly yes. The case is that even before 2008, when the republic gained international legal personality after it was oficially recognised by Russia and a number of other states, the people of South Ossetia repeatedly, and at referenda as well, took a stand for its own independence. To date the country has all necessary attributes of statehood, including the work of legislative, executive and judicial bodies.
The state of South Ossetia controls its territory, develops the national economy, takes care of culture and education.
Not unimportant is the fact that there is an active party and political work in the country. We clearly saw it during quite complicated presidential elections at the end of last year.
In short, an active and non-indifferent civil society is forming itself.
Now it is extremely important that this progressive process keeps going. To our estimations, the current president of the country Leonid Tibilov is implementing a straight course aimed at society cohesion and mobilisation of constructive forces. In short, taking into account all natural difficulties and problems of state development, South Ossetia is still obviously independent and consistent.
The people of South Ossetia certainly have to do a lot in order to build a modern democratic state, but Russia is going to continue supporting that intention of the republic in all necessary ways.
Question:Some experts state that taking into account complete financial dependence of South Ossetia from Russia it is impossible to consider this country to be a proper state. How would you comment upon that?
Answer:These experts seem to indulge in wishful thinking. In fact, the statehood is getting stronger. There are no doubts that we financially support the young republic. During four years after recognition, considerable material and financial resources were allocated from the Russian budget for assistance to South Ossetia. We realise that without the assistance of Russia it is impossible to solve all the accumulated problems, especially of social and economic revival, to eliminate the consequences of suffocative blockade and military attacks by Tbilisi. We are going to continue acting in this direction, because having protected South Ossetia and Abkhazia and having officially recognised these young states we took a great responsibility for their peaceful and succesful future. I assume that individual citizens of South Ossetia, especially those, who were left homeless after Georgian aggression in 2008, may consider the amounts of our assistance and most importantly the speed of restoration and construction of dwellings to be modest and insufficient. These issues, by the way, were openly discussed, particularly at the meeting of our President with Leonid Tibilov in Sochi on 8 May.
They set a task to achieve a quick and visible result in terms of improvement of people’s life and accomodation of those, who live, charitably speaking, in modest dwellings for a long time. In this respect, the most important condition of success is to ensure the efficient and target use of our allocated resources by the republic. We pay special attention to that.
Question:The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Grigol Vashadze previously stated that there are no countries in the world now, which are going to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Is it true? Has the wave of recognitions stopped?
Answer:The most important recognition has already taken place - it is recognition by the Russian Federation. Grigol Vashadze seem to know better, he knows the souls of all people in the world. I doubt that this process has stopped. As the statehood of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is getting established and as the continuous blockade of their representatives at international forums is being lifted, the states will recognise new South-Caucasian countries as independent partners. This process is certainly ahead.
If we are now talking about Tbilisi, I can share several considerations.
First of all, during four years it may have been realised that it is necessary to stop the warlike rhetoric, which leads to nothing. It is impossible to solve difficult political issues by propaganda, this is an absolute axiom. It is necessary to admit the existence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, to try to develop normal, respectful and equal relations with them. Only in such way it is possible to determine some prospects of long-term stability of South Caucasus in whole, as well as of Georgia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and their neighbour countries.
Question:The diplomats of Abkhazia and South Ossetia state that the countries, which want to recognise them, are greatly pressured by the USA...
Answer: We also know how inappropriately some of our western partners act, twisting the arms of less powerful and developed states, threatening to apply different kinds repressions to them if they do not recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Question:The Head of the MFA of Nauru being in Moscow recently informed that two more countries of the Asia and Pacific Rim may shortly recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Is it so?
Answer:I did not meet with him, but I know that such statement had been made, let us wait.
Question:On 14 August it will be 20 years after the day of beginning of war between Georgia and Abkhazia, which took lives of about 16 thousand people. You told that Georgia keeps actively sending saboteurs to the frontier areas of Abkhazia. The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili recently stated that Georgia needs a strong army, which is impossible to have without an “active” war. To your mind, could the events of August 1992 or August 2008 take place again?
Answer: I do not want these events to take place again. Russia is successively doing everything possible to prevent them. What about the warlike statements of Mikheil Saakashvili, the world has already got used to the expansiveness of this politician. Let God be his judge. Speaking to the point, the situation in the border area of Georgia and Abkhazia is really complicated. The special forces of Georgia penetrate to Gali district, which is inhabited by mostly ethnic Georgians, and intentionally terrorise its people.
The target of these actions is the representatives of law-enforcement bodies, local authorities, in other words Georgia tries to destabilise the situation in Gali district. Both the President of Abkhazia A. Ankvab and the Minister of Foreign Affairs V. Chirikba give a corresponding tough estimation to this situation, it can also be heard at Geneva meetings. It can not be accepted. It shows that revanchist scenarios, force methods of territorial unity restoration are still present in minds of the most zealous politicians in Tbilisi. It must be taken into account. Moreover, in view of the pre-election situation, the fears of threat on the part of Russia are being heated up there. For almost a year there is hysterics regarding the scheduled exercise of the Russian army “Caucasus-2012”, about which it was announced at the end of 2011.
There are exclamations about some aggression plans on the part of Russia, about demolition of Georgian statehood and suchlike propagandistic ravings. The political government representatives of Russia, Russian military officials and diplomats repeatedly explained both the exercise and our intentions.
But the propagandistic machine of Tbilisi works at full capacity and I am convinced that during the next two month we will still hear a lot of accusations towards Moscow. We must consider it appropriately, dividing the statements by emotionality and provocative nature of intentions of the present Georgian government. We expect that the common sense will eventually prevail, but it needs time, there must be realisation that it is necessary to change hysterics for serious policy.
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Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, We had valuable negotiations with Elmar Mammadyarov. We review the bilateral agenda, agreed what may foreign policy agencies of Russia and Azerbaijan do for full-scale fulfilment of the agreements reached at the level of presidents of our countries and build-up of cooperation in all spheres.
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Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, We have completed the main part of our negotiations with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He will have a meeting with the President of Russia in a few hours. As always, our conversation was very substantial and honest. We are sincerely interested in the consolidation of the role of the UN. This is one of the main tasks in the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation approved by the President Vladimir Putin on 12 February 2013.
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Question: The “Partnership for Modernisation” program is a significant element of the Russian-German dialog. What else would you like to decide within the framework of this format? How do you see next stages of its implementation? Sergey Lavrov: First of all, I would like that governments do not interfere with the cooperation of companies dealing with innovations and their industrial deployment within the framework of “Partnership for Modernisation”. Governments should know how this happens, to create a legal framework, a maximally comfortable regime for such cooperation, while professionals should decide each in its sphere. The more contacts we have within the framework of “Partnership for Modernisation”, the more weighty results we achieve in the form of final products, workplaces, additional profits of companies in Russia and Germany. I think that we share these interests, especially on the background of the most magnificent events in the world and European economy.
Dear Mr Minister, dear Guido, Dear Dr von Studnitz, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, friends, First of all, I would like to join the welcome words addressed to participants of the ceremonial meeting and to congratulate with an anniversary – 20 years of the German-Russian Forum, to wish its leaders, all employees and members success in their further work for the benefit of peoples of our countries.
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