Newsweek
Moscow, July 24, 2008
I would like to refer to an article under the heading “Poisoned relationship” in your magazine’s latest issue. Unfortunately, in their attempt at painting a gloomy picture of the present state of the Anglo-Russian relationship the authors displayed an utter disdain for facts. Let me set the record strait on a few of those points for the benefit of your readers.
As to the “divide and rule” tactics, attributed to Russia’s policy towards the European Union, I hope everybody knows what country is broadly associated with that method. Russia doesn’t play that game. On the contrary, as any partner of the EU, including the United States, we are interested in the EU being able to conduct a coherent common policy on all matters. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called precisely for that in her recent article in Foreign Affairs. As a matter of fact, the same point is clearly made in Russia’s Foreign Policy Concept approved by President Dmitri Medvedev earlier this month. It says, in particular, that “the Russian Federation is interested in the strengthening of the European Union, in the enhancement of its ability to present agreed positions in the areas of trade and economy, humanitarian issues, foreign policy and security”. Of course, that objective can only be achieved by EU member-states themselves.
What Russia is doing in the meantime is protecting its national interest pure and clear since nobody else will do it for us and interests cannot wait. The problem is, I suppose, that pragmatic pursuit by Russia of its national interest defined in clear-cut and unambiguous terms, our speaking the language of common sense, not of ideology, as well as our resolve not to get involved in any confrontation are a novel thing in international affairs, and quite a few people still have to get used to that.
Under no circumstances I will accept the notion that Britain presents a weak link of whatever it might be.
As to the Russo-British agenda per se, President Medvedev’s willingness to meet Prime Minister Brown on the margins of the recent G-8 Summit in Japan testifies to our desire to start moving towards normalization of our political bilateral relations. But that requires enough political will of both parties. As it turned out, that is not yet the case.
I hope you would agree that a mature positive relationship between major powers can only be established upon the basis of reciprocity, mutual respect and mutual benefit.
It won’t be fair to blame us for the facts created on the British side that are difficult to dismantle. In any case we are ready for a gradual advance. It has to be remembered that London demanded extradition of Mr.Lugovoi knowing full well that our Constitution forbids extradition of our citizens. We requested the British to provide sufficient evidence for their case against Mr.Lugovoi so that he could be tried in Russia. What we have received so far doesn’t meet those requirements.
And it is a gross distortion of facts to state that we demanded extradition of Mr.Berezovsky and Mr.Zakayev in response to that British demand. We have been doing that over the past six years. Actually, we have been requesting extradition of some twenty persons and received a positive response from the British authorities only in one case. However, the person in question mysteriously disappeared at the last moment.
We still cannot get any information on the man who, according to London officials, was planning to assassinate Mr.Berezovsky but somehow was allowed to leave the United Kingdom in an unknown direction.
The problem of the lack of legal foundation for the British Council operations, including in the regions of Russia, has nothing to do with the Lugovoi affair either. We have been trying to settle this matter through signing a bilateral agreement on official cultural centers for a few years at least. This process has been stalled by the perceived measures of retaliation of the British side.
I can assure you that we are a patient lot of people. We can perfectly live with this situation, though deplore it. Our two countries continue to cooperate on a wide range of international issues within various multilateral fora, including the UN Security Council, G-8, EU-Russia relationship and the NATO-Russia Council.
I sincerely believe that your readers deserve a higher level of professionalism and accuracy on the part of your staff.
Yours truly,
Alexander Kramarenko
Director for Policy Planning
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
МИНИСТЕРСТВО ИНОСТРАННЫХ ДЕЛ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ
ДЕПАРТАМЕНТ ИНФОРМАЦИИ И ПЕЧАТИ
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