MOSCOW, August 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian and European business should put forward the issu of deescalation in Ukraine for the politicians, Chief Executive of the Russian Rosnano Corporation Anatoly Chubais said on Tuesday.
“Such a political process inevitably poses serious risks for business. And entrepreneurs should be more pragmatic than the politicians,” he said in an interview to ITAR-TASS. “Throwing stones in a glass house, we’ll try not to break it. I know what many European entrepreneurs think, and this is their view. I hope we’ll hold the EU-Russia Industrialists’ Round Table in October, where I am the co-chairman, and we’ll voice the common call for deescalation.”
Asked whether Russian business will have the guts to voice such a statement, Rosnano CEO said he was speaking in a subjunctive mood. “I will propose to make a statement that escalation of sanctions causes both sides more harm than profit,” he said.
Reasons of Ukraine crisis
The Ukraine political crisis went back to the 1990s, and its reasons were global, beyond the Russian-Ukrainian relations, Chubais said.
“We see a real tragedy unfolding in Ukraine’s south-east,” he said. “What is happening now is far beyond Crimea, far beyond the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, far beyond the Russian-Ukrainian relations. I think the scale of the current events can only be understood and estimated if observed from the 25-30-year historic perspective. Starting from the 1990s, the Soviet Union’s defeat in the Cold War, our Western partners have been consistently picking up trophies moving from East Germany further eastwards. Finally, they have physically approached Georgia and Russia, the countries close to Russia. I think we are witnessing a revision of the world’s political architecture.”
These changes will come at a high price, and Russia will not be an exception, Chubais added.
“As a large country’s prime minister once said, Russia managed to prove the world is no more unipolar but this will cost Russia dear, and Russia has not yet paid the entire price,” he said. “Opinions vary but this is the real scale of the situation. The issue is not limited to the mottos ‘Crimea is ours’ or ‘Crimea is not ours’," Chubais said.