MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. The current migrant crisis in the European Union is not an "abstract humanitarian disaster" but a consequence of the policy of the United States and its closest NATO allies in the Middle East, a Russian lawmaker said on Monday.
"The current migrant influx stems from a number of factors. The strongest of such factors is the so-called ‘Arab spring,’ which, instead of democracy, has brought havoc and a bigger threat from radical movements," Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, told TASS.
Another factor, in his words, "is the policy of the United States and its closest allies aiming at destabilization of undesirable political regimes in the Arab world." "But instead of more liberal and pro-Western regimes, the Western policy has turned into complete loss of control over the situation and the West is now facing a chaotic uncontrollable situation, with flourishing terrorist and radical organizations," he said.
According to Pushkov, before the Western intervention into the Libyan, Iraqi and Syrian affair these states used to have "immunity against terrorism." "And at least one of these states - Syria - used to be a very successful example of solving inter-religious problems and co-existence of various religious groups and Libya was developing successfully on the basis of its oil and gas riches," he said. "And instead, and this fact is widely recognized, intervention in Libya has turned into havoc, intervention in Iraq has led to the destruction of that country and emergence of Islamic State."
"The West is now facing the consequences of its own policy in the Middle East," he said. "I mean it is not an abstract humanitarian disaster stemming from nowhere, it is the outcome of the Western policy and this chaotic ‘Arab spring’ the Western leaders and media hailed so loudly as though they did not understand what could be the consequences of destabilization in countries that are not ready for democracy and that have very serious radical Islamist moods and organizations."
The West, in his words, is denying it and seeking to picture the current developments as a "result of compelling circumstances." "But it is not so. The influx of migrants, which numbers about 300,000 only this year, of which more than 25% are refugees from Syria, is a proof evidencing that the United States and its allies are failing to cope with these problems and Europe is beginning to suffer from them, including those countries that had no relation to the intervention in Libya or destabilization in Syria," he underscored.