LONDON, November 14. /TASS/. Russia has done "a better job in bringing back stability to the Middle East than anybody else," Daniel Kawczynski, a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament told TASS on Monday.
"The anti-Russian narrative has been rife for years; lately it has reached a new crescendo. Day in, day out, Russia is being accused of yet more sophisticated acts of wickedness," he said.
"We are regularly shown emotive images of injured Syrian children, accompanied by the hypnotising mantra that Russia is to blame. We have become obsessed with Russia," Daniel Kawczynski said.
Phantom fears
According to the British politician, NATO countries have created an "evil empire" in their minds and are "at risk of being driven to catastrophic decisions through the fear and disdain that are being instigated in us".
"Our unease and discomfort with Russia’s assertive foreign policy may stem partly from our historical monopoly on global influence. Today’s reality is that not only Russia, but also China, India and other emerging powers will increasingly have to be taken into consideration on the international stage," he said.
"Our condescending carrot-and-stick approach in our dealings with seemingly weaker states does not and will not work with Russia," the parliamentarian warned.
"For the sake of peace, we have to go the extra mile and engage more actively in constructive dialogue with Russia. And this also means preparedness to meet halfway in negotiations. Rebuffing or lecturing Russia on how to behave is easy and plays well in our domestic media. But it is a poor alternative to genuine diplomacy," he added.
Finger pointing
Speaking about Russia’s military campaign against terrorist groups operating in Syria, Daniel Kawczynski urged the West to stop labelling Russia and accusing it of civilian deaths.
"We are quick to see Russia’s faults but conveniently overlook our own. In 1999 we bombed Serbia for almost three months causing hundreds of civilian deaths and thousands of wounded," he said.
"Today we condemn Russia for performing military operations in Syria. But we seem to be using a very different value system for ourselves and our allies when launching military invasions and overthrowing foreign leaders," the parliamentarian said.
"We denounce Russia for causing loss of human life in Syria, and even accuse it of deliberately targeting civilians. But what about the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who have lost their lives as a result of the ongoing wars that we instigated in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya?" Daniel Kawczynski asked.
"Of course we did not mean to cause these casualties and we did not deliberately target civilians in our military operations. Why does it even occur to us that the Russians would do otherwise?" the parliamentarian addee.
Russia’s contribution to fight against terrorism
Daniel Kawczynski drew attention to propaganda work of terrorists in Syria, aimed at shaping favorable for them public opinion in Western countries.
"It is ISIS and other terrorist organisations that are slaughtering civilians, cynically using them as human shields, and feeding Western media with footage of children being taken out of rubble to undermine the Syrian government and its allies," he said.
"It should be clear by now that civilians are dying in Syria as a result of the barbaric tactics of ISIS and other terrorist groups that operate there, and not of those who are trying to defeat them and put an end to this war," he emphasized.
"We have meddled in the internal affairs of sovereign nations time and again. We have destabilised them and left a power vacuum for extremist groups, such as ISIS, to take control" he went on.
"By supporting the multiple rebel groups in Syria, we are effectively fuelling the machinery of war that is causing more and more destruction and human misery," he said.
"Russia, on the other hand, has so far done a better job in bringing back stability to the Middle East than anybody else," the parliamentarian said.
Assad’s removal doesn’t guarantee peace
The British parliamentarian voiced an extremely unpopular among Western politicians view about the role of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the settlement of the Syrian conflict, saying his removal, on which the Western coalition insists, will not mean peace.
"By now we should have learnt from our prior foreign policy experience that getting rid of Assad will not guarantee peace," he said.
"Instead of our stubborn insistence on cutting Assad out of any political arrangement for a post-war Syria, we should focus our diplomatic efforts on affecting positively the nature of his possible future presidency and the structures of the new state and government," the parliamentarian stressed.