Kosovo
Sunday 20 May 2018
-
Aleksandar Vučić
President of Serbia
"As you know, nothing in international relations lasts shorter than gratitude, and I would like to thank you once again for what you did in 2015, when you literally saved the Serbian people -- who were and are the people who suffered the most over the last century -- from the stigma of genocide, when you vetoed the British resolution in the U.N.”
Read more...The Serbs not only did not suffer “the most” from 20th Century conflict but it was the Serbian troops who massacred thousands during Bosnian war. Ten UN Security Council members voted for resolution recognizing these atrocities as an act of genocide. Russia vetoed the resolution. Serbs made up one-fourth of the deaths in the 1990’s Balkans conflicts. More than two-thirds of the killed were Bosnian Muslims. -
Sergey Lavrov
Foreign Minister, Russia
“Because during the Cold War there were channels of communication. And there was no obsession with Russophobia, which resembles genocide through sanctions."
Read more...The United Nations defines genocide as the deliberate destruction of a specific group, and lists five types of actions toward a specific group that qualify as genocidal. None of these apply to the financial and travel restrictions the United States imposed on Russian government officials and tycoons. -
Ivan Karyakin
Investment analyst
“Brussels surely understands that replacing the Russian pipeline gas with American LNG does not increase, but reduces the energy security of the EU.”
Read more...American supplies of liquefied natural gas challenge Russia’s domination of Europe’s energy market, reduces European dependence on Russian supplies and expands the EU’s energy options, promoting fair competition and potentially leading to lower prices. -
Leonid Ivashov
a former top Russian defense ministry official
“It indicates that they, the Americans in the first place, are preparing to start a war in Europe, and you can wage a war in Europe against Russia only.”
Read more...NATO’s recent deployments in Eastern Europe are minuscule compared to Russia’s capabilities on its western flank and would be insufficient for a successful attack on -- or a war with -- Russia. Rather, the U.S. and NATO are enhancing the deterrence posture and collective defense of NATO members. -
Bryan MacDonald
Russia-based journalist
“[A] U.S. State Department claim that Russia’s military strength eclipses that of European Union states is especially ludicrous... [I]t [Russia] is not stronger than the European Union, by any measure, and the State Department’s [Brian] Hook [senior policy advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State] is spreading clear disinformation. All to serve an agenda that has nothing to do with Europe’s security.”
Read more...The EU does not have a military, and the U.S. and NATO have some military disadvantages in Europe, while Russia’s rapid military modernization and actions in Georgia, Crimea, and eastern Ukraine make it a conventional military threat to the region. -
Vladimir Putin
President, Russian Federation
“When a country joins NATO it becomes next to impossible for it to resist pressure from major NATO leaders such as the United States, and hence, it may deploy anything – a missile defense system, new bases, or if need be, missile strike systems.”
Read more...The Russian president says the United States and other major NATO members use the alliance to exert pressure against Russia by forcing Eastern European members to establish missile defense systems. But Eastern nations say they are the ones demanding more military installations and troops. -
Sergei Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“I will recall that the aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was associated with attacks on a huge number of civilian facilities… Thousands of those killed, several hundred children out of them..."
Read more...At the time, Yugoslav officials said much the same thing. However, a detailed accounted by Yugoslavia’s Foreign Ministry listed around 400 civilians killed. And in one of the most authoritative studies of the NATO action, Human Rights Watch estimated some 500 were killed. So Lavrov’s claim of “thousands” seems way off the mark.