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Middle East and North Africa

Russian lawmaker: Some forces in US seeking to capitalize on Middle East chaos

There are people in the US who might be deriving their personal profits such as arms trading, financing security agencies and so on trying to play on crises in Libya and Iraq, Alexey Pushkov says

Alexey Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma TASS/Anton Novoderezhkin

Alexey Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma

© TASS/Anton Novoderezhkin

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MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. Some forces in the United States are seeking to capitalize on the chaos created by the Americans in the Middle East but the overall situation in that region is not in Washington’s national interests, a Russian lawmaker said on Monday.

"We should not overestimate the strength of the Western alliance and the United States as its leader," Alexey Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, said at a Duma discussion entitled ‘Russia and the West: What’s Next.’ "The West is subject to rather serious pressure in terms of the refugee crisis, the Syrian development and the overall situation in the Middle East."

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"The game, as a matter of fact, has been largely lost. I don’t think the United States has done it deliberately to control the chaos and derive some advantages," he said, adding he did not see what the United States could benefit from this situation.

"I see a chain of unhappy decisions — from Libya to Iraq, and if someone is trying to play on it, and, undoubtedly, there are such people in the United States, they might be deriving their personal profits such as arms trading, financing security agencies and so on. But obviously, it is not in the United States’ national interests," Pushkov said and recommended "not to overestimate the West’s forces as a structure Russia is to deal with."

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Middle East and North Africa United States Alexey Pushkov

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