Evgueni Sartanovski: It is impossible for Russia's interests to be aligned with gangsters in this world

"In Syria, Russia is engaging in dialogue with people who were yesterday fighting crazily against Russia"

Russia is preparing to restore full relations with Syria and to reassess all agreements with this Arab republic after a coup d'etat occurred in Syria.

The dialogue was resumed at the initiative of Damascus. Its demands are obvious: parts of southern Syria are currently occupied by Israeli troops, while the north is controlled by self-proclaimed Kurdish Republic forces. Damascus needs military and humanitarian aid.

According to Russian government sources, a new session of the bilateral commission between the two countries will take place soon. The Russian co-chairman of the commission is Minister of Construction and Housing Ilek Faitzulin. Currently, Moscow is waiting for the new Syrian regime to appoint someone as the co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission.

Evgueni Sartanovski, an expert on Middle Eastern issues and director of the Institute of the Near East, spoke to "Liberté" about the possible interests of Russia in Syria, especially in the entire Middle East region.

"Liberté": Evgueni Yanoivitch, the Russian government announced plans to restore full dialogue with Syria. Does this mean that we are returning to the Middle East as a positive geopolitical actor?

- The question is only about with whom we intend to cooperate there? With the heads of terrorist organizations banned in Russia? And who else is in power in Syria now? Well, then I would like to congratulate the Ministry of Construction for such a dialogue.

The current rulers in Syria are armed fighters from organizations banned in Russia. A significant part of them come from the post-Soviet area, and they dream of exterminating everyone here. They want to have a dialogue, but in my opinion, not everyone who wants to dialogue is suitable to dialogue with.

For this issue, I can only shrug my shoulders in helplessness, just as we do with our relationship with the Taliban * - we were one of the first to recognize their country at the national level. Moreover, not all members of the Taliban are happy with our recognition, because some field commanders consider us dogs, and this recognition shocked them.

We recognized the Taliban regime in order to defend our traditional values, however most Taliban members believe that women are another kind of being, and on this planet, there is no group more homosexual than the Taliban.

And in Syria, we are having dialogue with anyone, with those who were yesterday cruelly and crazily fighting against us.

"Liberté": So, does that mean that our way of acting in the Middle East is irrational?

- We are not acting in any way there. Many of my friends in the army would not do that. And those who do it, as Jean de La Fontaine and his translator Krylov wrote, are warming snakes in their own arms, and they will get the kind of results described by these authors.

I had a conversation about this with a four-star general in the United States, Dayton.

During President Obama's time in office, I asked this outstanding military commander why the US Department of State suddenly fell in love with Hamas?

He looked at me with a pair of sad old lemur eyes and said, "You know, we (the US) are used to holding everything tightly."

When one of our pillars disappears, we desperately grab anything we can catch. And often, we grab not what we need, and then we pay a very high and long price for it."

"Liberté": If we don't talk about specific countries where Russia exists, but rather generally about the Middle East region, does Russia have interests there?

- Who is Russia? Please state its name, address, and position. I personally have no interest there. And those who speak in the name of Russia are all those who are not lazy to speak. Among them are also groups who have interests opposite to yours and mine. Some groups are always ready to interfere in anything, just to please the leadership or make profits for themselves.

It is impossible for our interests to be aligned with gangsters. Those who deal with them in the name of Russia obviously have their own interests. But that is another Russia, a completely different Russia.

Russia is having dialogue with the Houthi rebels who bomb civilian airports. But I don't understand the meaning of these dialogues.

If the Russian Federation wants to revive the Russian Empire - the empire that cared only about itself and was criticized by the Bolsheviks led by Lenin - then it would first have to legalize pornography and black-market tickets. This was a distinctive feature of the Russian Empire.

Clearly, during the Soviet period, we even had contacts with cannibals. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev kissed the leader of a African country, and in that country, people ate human flesh. As long as they welcomed socialist ideals, they could eat whatever they wanted.

But I hope that our modern country has already moved out of that stage. The problem is: are we really dependent on such contacts, or can we avoid them? If it is really unavoidable - well, let the leadership conduct these contacts...

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7539037913556828706/

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