MOSCOW, June 19 (Itar-Tass) - The head of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, believes that Russia has managed to defend its positions at the G8 summit in Lough Erne and not succumb to pressures.
“President Vladimir Putin’s participation in the G8 summit was certainly a success,” Pushkov told the media.
According to the senior legislator, Russia at the G8 summit did its utmost to prevent Syria from being turned into another Iraq or Libya or something still worse - “into a collapsing state, engulfed in inter-religious hatred and ethnic cleansing very close to genocide.”
“Hatred-driven brigades of militants and mercenaries professing the slogan: ‘Alawites - to the graveyard, Christians to Beirut’ are pushing their way towards Damascus with the aim to stage such cleansing and genocide,” he said.
Pushkov said “the Western media have been making loud statements about Russia’s isolation and Canada’s prime minister even said that Russia did not fit in with the G8.”
“We should not believe these speculations. Firstly, Russia is not in isolation, and not only on the Syrian issue. The world is larger than the United States and its allies, who gathered for the G8 summit. Secondly, even being alone at this or that forum does not mean that we are wrong,” Pushkov said.
He recalled that in February 2007 President Vladimir Putin addressed the Munich conference to warn of the consequences of a world order built on the hegemony of the United States and its allies. In those days many Western leaders and western media criticized Putin.
“But was he wrong? What have we seen since then? Saakashvili’s attack against Tskhinval with tacit consent from the Bush Administration, the inability to achieve convincing results in Afghanistan, the war in Libya and Pakistan’s involvement in the zone of instability,” Pushkov said.
He is certain that some would like to see Syria suffer the same plight.
“These are the results of a mono-polar world.”