29/09/2014 22:07 Opinions
US President Barack Obama has ruled out the possibility of a military conflict between NATO, Russia and Ukraine. He stated this in an interview with CBS on the “60 Minutes” program. “No, I don’t think there will be a military conflict between Russia and NATO,” he said, and stressed that the United States has “worked hard” to reassure its NATO allies. Obama also said that the United States would intervene in the conflict only if there was a military conflict with a NATO country. “And Putin understands this,” he added. At the same time, Obama said that Russia “has the opportunity to move towards improving [relations between countries].” In his opinion, Putin’s actions towards Ukraine, which the Russian president is trying to leave in his orbit of influence, have a good effect on the “ratings within the country”, but have a very bad effect on “the economy and the future of Russia,” Obama believes. The US President said that in the Ukrainian crisis “there is the possibility of a political solution.” At the same time, he said that it would hardly have been possible if “we [the United States] had not taken a firm position, pointing out what Russia did wrong.” Obama called on Russia to “choose a different path,” saying it was “a great country with brilliant talent and great tradition.” In particular, he emphasized Russia’s engineering and mathematical “talents” and stated that if it focused on them, on its economy, it would become a great power in the modern world. The day before, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about Russian-American relations. In an interview with Channel Five, he said that the United States is “no longer able to decide everything for everyone alone,” and “awareness of this results in inadequate actions.” “They [the Americans] are still the most powerful power militarily, but not nearly as strong as before. It is still the strongest power economically, but China is “tapping on its heels.” They are no longer able to decide everything for everyone alone, but they are used to it. This is not criticism, but a statement of fact,” Lavrov said. The Foreign Minister noted that Russia is interested in normalizing relations with the United States. “But we weren’t the ones who destroyed them,” Lavrov noted. “And what is now required is what Americans may call a “reset,” a term coined during the administration of US President Barack Obama after the serious setback in our relations in the final years of George W. Bush’s administration. Today, the current administration is largely destroying the cooperation structures it created together with us. Probably something else will be invented: “reboot No. 2” or “reboot 2.0,” the minister said. Lavrov said that Moscow is not going to abandon the European and American vectors of foreign economic and international cooperation. “We are open to any form of partnership with the understanding that we will work on the basis of equality, respect for each other and mutual benefit. This is how we build relationships with a huge number of countries – China, India, within the BRICS, SCO – and we are also implementing very promising integration projects in the post-Soviet space – the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is being created, new countries are already showing interest in it, and the membership will expand,” the minister believes. http://top.rbc.ru/politics/29/09/2014/5428c564cbb20ff1c0167398
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Posted on March 25, 2024
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