Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Armenian Men are Also Eager to Look Young

“ArmInfo” News Agency interview with “Erebuni” medicenter plastic
surgeon Nara Tornikova Vardapetyan

by Tatevik Shahunyan
Monday, March 9, 00:40

Nara Tornikova, plastic surgery has become popular with our society
over the recent years. What is this tendency mandated by? Compared
with the previous years, how often have people started turning to
plastic surgeons aiming to correct their appearance?

– Yes, you have got the point. Plastic surgery has recently become
more popular with the Armenian society. The reason for this tendency
is particularly the change of people’s attitude towards their
appearance, as well as better availability of western trends in our
republic. For example, mostly women would turn to plastic correction
several years ago and even then not that often. However, nowadays men
are also aspiring to look handsome. When turning to rhinosurgery
before, the Armenian menfolk would particularly mention the correction
of the curved nasal floor or a slight correction of the nose but the
way “no one would notice”. However, nowadays they are quite bold at
making appearance correction requests. It is remarkable that most our
clients are “men of high profile” ; that is probably mandated by their
welfare, for plastic surgery still remains a costly affair for a
country like Armenia. Speaking of men in that matter, I believe it to
be quite clear that the number of women, who turn to plastic surgery
services, is permanently growing drawing on their natural desire to
always look good.

If we are to compare the number of utilization of plastic surgery
services to the ratio of population and operations carried out in
Armenia and the ones in foreign countries, do we lag behind?

– I wouldn’t say so; the ratio is almost the same.

Nara Tornikova, what are the most frequent requests of your patients?

-Well, number one, of course, is nose surgery; moreover, this service
is popular both with men and women. It is remarkable that there is
long held perception that, by reference to the so-called “Armenian
nose”, this type of surgery is extremely popular in Armenia. However,
that is not true, for “nose job” is as popular overseas as in our
country. After rhinosurgery come breast, belly and buttocks correction
types.

What types of plastic surgery are popular with men and women?

– Well, women are quite often to turn with belly correction requests.
Rejuvenating procedures, such as botox injections and
hyaluronan-products, are in great demand, too. However, it is
remarkable that these procedures have become more popular with men as
well. As it happens, Armenian men are also eager to look young. By the
way, in such cases they prefer absolute confidentiality.

What about the quality of plastic surgery services? Are our
specialists’ skills inferior to their overseas colleagues’?

– As for nose surgery, I can say that they are almost at the same
level. Moreover, compared to services offered in CIS, our services
appear to be of higher quality. This is evidenced by clients from
abroad as well.

What about financial issues? Despite the adverse socio-economic
situation you are saying that the number of plastic surgery patients
is growing taking into account the cost of the service and the fact
that plastic surgery is not on the list of health compulsory surgical
interventions.

– I have already said that mostly wealthy men turn to us. However,
representatives of middle class have recently shown a trend for
utilizing our services. Pursuit of beauty often makes them save
expenditure in order to turn to a plastic surgeon.

Let’s speak of the psychological aspect of the topic. Why do people
turn to a plastic surgeon – drawing on their natural desire to always
look beautiful and various appearance complexes, are there lots of
people who see appearance correction as a solution to their personal
problems?

– There is a disorder – dysmorphophobia. It is characterized by the
constant need for appearance correction, as well as by the permanent
resentment over the latter. However, that is not to say that people,
who turn to plastic surgery, suffer from some psychiatric deviations.
In most cases they are guided by the natural aspiration to look young
and beautiful at any age. However, as a plastic surgeon, I can assure
you that the appearance is not always a recipe for success. All too
often people with less symmetric forms and features make greater
advances than people with a perfect and faultless appearance.
Nevertheless, appearance correction gives people more self-confidence.

I am a person to favour natural beauty. What do you think, doesn’t a
person “lose” from repairing to plastic surgery? Doesn’t a person
become just a copy and lose his/her native trait?

– Definitely, it is not so if there’s need for surgery, and the
surgical intervention is performed correctly. If there is no need for
a surgical intervention, we, doctors, often back down operations.

My last question probably interests all filler-lovers. How safe is it
to use fillers and are there any counter indications?

– As for botox, there are no special counter indication, except
perhaps, allergic individuals, people with diabetes and pregnant women
shouldn’t betake such procedures. I want to advise patients to do
injections at medical centres, and not in skin-care shops, for
botulinum toxin may cause allergic reactions up to Quincke’s disease.
In such cases there is need for emergency interventions which,
however, one cannot get in skin-care shops. As for hyaluronan, there
are counter indications in case of autoimmune diseases.

To sum up, can we say that plastic surgery is a successful medical
sphere in Armenia?

– Definitely, this is evidenced both by service quality improvement
and the growing number of clients.

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GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS
Deutsche Welle s’interroge sur la culpabilité de l’Allemagne dans le
génocide des Arméniens

Le site d’information allemand > vient de consacrer
un large article au génocide des Arméniens à l’occasion de son 100ème
anniversaire et tentant d’analyser sur le rôle de l’Allemagne dans ce
génocide. sous la signature de Richard
Fouks. >. L’article
retrace l’historique des positions et déclarations des politiques
allemands sur le génocide des Arméniens et s’étonne qu’en cette année
du 100ème anniversaire de ce génocide, les autorités allemandes

Cihan News Agency (CNA)
March 6, 2015 Friday

British jurist highlights German role in mass deportation of Armenians

Aydın Albayrak, The Hague

Ä°STANBUL (CÄ°HAN)- A leading British jurist well-versed in human rights
cases has implicated Germany in the forced relocation of Armenians by
the Ottomans during World War I, a move which led to mass killings
that Armenians describe as genocide.

It was Germans who suggested that Armenians be relocated, Geoffrey
Robertson, who also served as an appeals judge with the UN Special
Court for Sierra Leone from 2002 to 2007, said Friday at a conference
titled “The Armenian Genocide Legacy: 100 Years on.”

Robertson, who was one of the panelists on the first day of the
conference in The Hague, Netherlands, maintained that Germans advised
Ottoman Turks to settle the Armenian question based on Germany’s
practice of ethnic cleansing in southwest Africa back in 1905.
“Germans were in complicity with the Turks,” he added. The Ottoman
Empire and Germany were allies in World War I.
In response to a rebellion by native people against German colonial
rule in the area corresponding to today’s Namibia, the German army
allegedly let the native people who fled the violence die from
starvation and thirst by preventing them from leaving the Namibian
dessert. The number of victims is estimated to be in the tens of
thousands.

“This is the first genocide of the 20th century,” said Robertson, who
also described the suffering Ottoman Armenians experienced during
their relocation as genocide.
In contrast to the opinions voiced at the panel, Turkey denies claims
that the forced relocation of Armenians, which mainly took place in
1915, amount to genocide, arguing that the relocation was a necessity,
as some of the Armenians in eastern Anatolia collaborated with Russian
forces against the Ottoman army during fighting that took place
several months before the relocation began.

The two-day conference, organized ahead of the centennial
commemoration of the forced relocation of Ottoman Armenians, was held
at the Hague Institute for Global Justice.

In an interview in January with the state-run Turkish Radio and
Television Corporation (TRT), President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an
criticized the Armenian diaspora for exploiting the mass killings of
Armenians in 1915 and said Turkey would not acknowledge the 1915
events as “genocide” just because others push Turkey to recognize them
as such.

Every year on April 24, Armenians around the world commemorate the
Armenian victims who died during the forced relocation, which
officially began in June 1915.

As the 100th anniversary of the forced relocation approaches, Armenia
and the Armenian diaspora have increased their efforts to have the
suffering of the Armenians be recognized as genocide, as well as
seeking ways to demand reparations from the Turkish Republic, the heir
to the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian properties seized by the state
following the relocation.

In an interview with the TRT, ErdoÄ?an said on Thursday that the
Armenian diaspora is pushing for acknowledgement that the events at
the end of World War l constituted “genocide” and is trying to create
pressure on Turkey, but that this issue needs to be handled by
historians.

Robertson, who is also the author of a book titled “An Inconvenient
Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians?” lashed out at the European
Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a verdict which concluded that
denying what Armenians suffered is “genocide” does not constitute a
crime.

In December 2013, the lower court of the ECtHR ruled by five votes to
two that Switzerland violated the right to freedom of speech by
convicting DoÄ?u Perinçek, chairman of the Turkish Workers’ Party (Ä°P),
for having publicly denied that a genocide took place against the
Armenian people.

Perinçek declared that the events that befell the Armenians under
Ottoman rule in 1915 are an “international lie.”

Maintaining that the ECtHR decided that this was not genocide because
there were no gas chambers involved, as was the case during the
Holocaust, Robertson said: “This was stupid.”

The court’s decision regarding Perinçek set a precedent that it is
counter to the freedom of expression to charge individuals for
expressing views different than the officially accepted ones
concerning issues under public debate.

Ronald Suny, a professor of history at the University of Michigan,
said “genocide” might have been avoided if the rulers of the Ottoman
Empire had granted rights to minorities in the Ottoman state, instead
of seeing them as existential threats to the state.

They took a path that led to destruction, said Suny, who was the
keynote speaker of the conference.

Suny said estimates of the number of Armenians who lost their lives
during the relocation range from 600,000 to over 1 million. But some
Turkish sources maintain that the figure is much less.

Referring to what Aboriginal Australians, the continent’s indigenous
people, and Native Americans lived through in the past, Suny also
underlined that all states should make an effort to come to terms with
their history.

MONNIER: FRANCE DOESN’T RECOGNIZE NAGORNO-KARABAKH’S INDEPENDENCE

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 6 2015

6 March 2015 – 1:48pm

France doesn’t recognize the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh
region of Azerbaijan, which is occupied by Armenia. Paris continuously
supports the ongoing mediation process of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs to find a peaceful settlement to the conflict, the ambassador
of France to Azerbaijan, Pascal Monnier, said today.

The ambassador was commenting on the remarks made by three members
of the so-called France-Nagorno-Karabakh parliamentary friendship
group – the senators Sophie Joissains and Michel Amiel, and the
mayor of the town of Bourg-les-Valence, Marlene Mourier, in support
of the recognition of the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh by the
international community which were posted on the website of the French
weekly magazine L’Express.

“If a French senator is asking for recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s
independence, he is expressing a personal opinion that doesn’t engage
the French Republic,” Trend cited Pascal Monnier as saying.

France doesn’t have any relations with the ‘authorities’ in
Nagorno-Karabakh, the diplomat stressed.

ARMENIA 2015: SONG PRESENTATION ON 12/3

OikoTimes
March 6 2015

Posted on March 6, 2015

YEREVAN, ARMENIA – The song “Don’t Deny” has also been selected
internally. We have been collaborating with numerous Armenian composers
and lyricists. This year I was especially thrilled with the fact
that after our last year’s success in Eurovision there was a wave of
excitement and desire to create a winning song. The creative team of
AMPTV selected the song composed by Armen Martirosyan and lyricist
Inna Lazarian. This was the song to perfectly fit Eurovision song
format and combine all 6 unique voices creating the desired atmosphere
on the stage.

We decided to have a double premiere and present the song along with
the music video considering that it is making a greater impact and is
reinforcing the power of the narrative. The song is about universal
values and the message is one – “Happiness is born when people are
united and live in harmony with themselves, their families, love
relationships and so on. Generations are shifting with time but the
genealogy remains, thus the values of love and peace are stable.”

The participants visited Armenia for a short trip to record the song
and the music video directed by Aren Bayadyan. Several exclusive
photo shoots were held with stylist Armen Galyan. The music video
premiere will be on March 12 on AMPTV at 18:30 CET (21:30 local time)
right after the main news simultaneously with Eurovision.tv.

Russia preparing ‘final assault’ to take back Georgia
By F. Michael Maloof
03/07/2015

WASHINGTON — As the focus of world attention remains on ISIS,
Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and other countries that once
comprised the Soviet Union are receiving little notice, particularly
Moscow’s designs for Georgia, which will have ramifications for the
entire Caucasus region.

`Russia might be preparing for a final assault on Georgia which
certainly may include overt military pressure,’ said Vasil Rukhadze of
the Washington, D.C.-based think-tank Jamestown Foundation.

One of the reasons Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking
critically at Georgia is that it has sought to join the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, or NATO, and continues to seek membership despite
Kremlin warnings.

Putin’s moves into Ukraine and now the threats toward Georgia are to
maintain a buffer between the NATO countries and the Russian
Federation. Putin has been critical of NATO’s `eastward expansion,’
such as in the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,
where a significant number of ethnic Russians reside.

There also are mounting concerns that Moscow has targeted Estonia,
because of its weak economy and political uncertainty, to force the
country, along with the entire Baltic to leave NATO and rejoin its
Eurasian Union.

For now, however, the immediate concern after Ukraine is Georgia, with
Russian troops occupying the two Georgian breakaway provinces of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

`Russia’s recent activities in Georgia strongly suggest where the
Kremlin may wish to move forward next, should Russia prevail in the
Ukrainian war and succeed in dismembering this country or ensuring
Kiev’s forced subjugation back into the Russian `sphere of privileged
interest,’ he said.

The Russians are all but prepared to annex Abkhazia, now that Russian
President Vladimir Putin has ratified the so-called `Alliance and
Strategic Partnership Treaty’ with that region.

Russian troops occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia after the 2008
Russian invasion of Georgia, which lasted five days. Russian troops
have never left.

At the same time, Moscow is working, in effect, to annex South
Ossetia, much as it did Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula last year, with an
Abkhazia-type Alliance and Strategic Partnership Treaty.

Some regional observers say Russia’s 2008 advance into Georgia and
takeover of its two breakaway provinces was just a warm-up to annex
the Crimean Peninsula.

Now, the rest of Ukraine, especially in the East, is looking at the
specter of Russia being called in to protect ethnic Russians there,
much as it did in Crimea.

Russia’s treaty with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which the
international community still regard as part of Georgia, underscores
the priority it holds in regaining its hold on Georgia and the
overarching importance the Caucasus holds for Moscow.

`Needless to say, Russia does not intend to give up anything in
Georgia and the Caucasus,’ Rukhadze said. `Quite to the contrary, the
Kremlin is actually consolidating, and rather successfully so, its
position in the region.’

He said that after Ukraine, Georgia is perhaps the former Soviet
republic that has been `vigorously’ resisting membership in the
Russian Eurasian Economic Union, which is supposed to be the economic
counterpart to the West’s European Union.

In Rukhadze’s view, the Eurasian Economic Union is nothing more than a
cover for Putin to resurrect the Soviet Union.

`So, by subduing Georgia, Putin will be able (to) obtain the last
highly important piece to complete his Eurasian integrationist
project,’ Rukhadze said.

But Putin has other strategic designs for the region, which would give
him access to one of the major oil and natural gas pipelines outside
Ukraine to provide energy to Europe.

It also would give Russia a long-sought direct land link to Armenia,
which Rukhadze describes as a `key satellite’ in the South Caucasus
region.

The landline would permit Moscow to resupply its only military base
outside the Russian Federation, a request it has made to the Georgian
government that consistently has been rejected.

With such a land-link directly from the Russian Federation into
Armenia, Moscow would geographically isolate Azerbaijan from the West,
which then would prompt that country’s `inevitable return to the
Russian orbit,’ Rukhadze said.

Neither Georgia nor the West seem to be prepared to respond to the
prospect of a Russian takeover in Georgia, establishing a landline
into Armenia and moving Azerbaijan back under Moscow’s influence.

`As a result, once Russia strikes, [the West is] likely to be caught
by surprise, as was the case when Russia annexed Crimea and launched
the war in eastern Ukraine,’ Rukhadze said.

`Hence, Russia’s every step in Georgia and in the entire Caucasus
region will need to be carefully analyzed and counterbalanced,’ he
said.

`Failure to do so, as recent history has already shown, may yield
far-reaching, devastating results.’

ARMENIE
Vartan Oskanian quitte également le parti Arménie Prospère

L’ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères Vartan Oskanian a confirmé
jeudi sa décision de quitter le Parti Arménie prospère (BHKe),
pointant son incapacité à parvenir à un changement de régime dans le
pays.

“Mettant fin à mon adhésion au BHK, je suis conscient de ma part de
responsabilité pour son échec”, a-t-il dit dans une déclaration écrite
publiée peu de temps après la démission du chef fondateur du parti,
Gagik Tsarukian.

Vartan Oskanian a condamné “l’utilisation arbitraire et
inconstitutionnelle de tous les leviers du gouvernement” contre Gagik
Tsarukian qui ont conduit le magnat de la politique à démissionner. Il
a dit que la répression non seulement a endommagé la réputation
internationale de l’Arménie, mais aussi anéanti “les espoirs du peuple
arménien pour accélérer des changements immédiats radicaux dans le
pays.”

Vartan Oskanian a également félicité la nouvelle présidente du BHK,
Naira Zohrabian, exprimant l’espoir que le parti “continuera à lutter
contre le monopole politique dans le pays” sous sa direction.

Naira Zohrabian a été la première à révéler mercredi la démission de
Vartan Oskanian. Elle a déclaré jeudi que l’ancien citoyen américain
d’origine syrienne, qui a servi comme chef de la diplomatie de
l’Arménie entre 1998 et 2008 sous l’ancien président Robert
Kotcharian, conservera son siège au Parlement.

Vartan Oskanian a été l’un des critiques les plus amères au BHK contre
le président Serge Sarkissian depuis qu’il a rejoint le parti de
Tsarukian au début de 2012, peu de temps avant son retrait de la
coalition gouvernementale de l’Arménie. Il a été la cible de
fréquentes attaques verbales des alliés politiques de Serge
Sarkissian.

Selon les rapports des médias, Serge Sarkissian aurait exigé le
retrait de Vartan Oskanian de la direction du BHK lors d’une réunion
confidentielle le 17 janvier avec Gagik Tsarukian. La réunion a abouti
à la décision de Gagik Tsarukian d’arrêter de contester le
gouvernement.

samedi 7 mars 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

When will Hrachya Harutyunyan be transferred to Armenia?

11:47 | March 7,2015 | Social

Family members of Hrachya Harutyunyan, Armenian driver who serves his
sentence in the Russian Federation, still hope that he will be
transferred to Armenia and will serve the rest of the sentence here.

“Still there is no news,” Hrachya Harutyunyan’s wife- Anahit
Martirosyan told “A1+”.

In January Justice Minister Hovhannes Manukyan received them and
informed that the issue of Hrachya Harutyunyan’s transportation is
underway.

We remind that Hrachya Harutyunyan is accused of the car accident case
on July 13 in New Moscow, as a result of which 18 people died. Hrachya
Harutyunyan accepted his guilt.

During this period only the relatives have seen Hrachya Harutyunyan
and they say that his health is relatively good.

DEPO
Tophane 34425 Ä°stanbul
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +902122923956
Web:

Spectrography: Tracing the Ghosts

Artists: Anna Barseghian, Stefan Kristensen, Uriel Orlow,
Méliné Ter Minassian (performance)

March 15 – April 12, 2015
Opening: Saturday, March 14, 18:00
Performance: Güle Is Very Beautiful, Ter Minassian & Barseghian, 19:00

This collaborative exhibition by Anna Barseghian, Stefan Kristensen and
Uriel Orlow is the outcome of an intense dialogue among the artists on
the memory and the wounds of Armenian history, and of a common trip to
Southeastern Turkey.

Photographs and video works which explore a haunted territory, intend to
make the absence of the disappeared visible in landscapes and ruins. By
relating to people, listening to the silences of their words, and the
expressions on their faces, the works allow untimely memories to emerge
at a turning of a path, on the side of a mountain, and in the radiance
of a face.

Barseghian and Kristensen visiting the villages of their grandparents
try to trace the Armenian presence in these places. They listen to the
story of Gülizar, whose name has become a symbol of resistance
among both Armenians and Kurds. Ter Minassian and Barseghian will be
performing their relation to the story of this legendary character.
Orlow’s videos bring together the hometown of homeless ghosts,
Moosh, and a housing project with the same name in Northern Armenia
which is left in an incomplete ghostly state, and also look at the ruins
of old Armenian monsatery Surp Garabed and the new habitation that
emerged on the site.

Arménouhie Kévonian’s book Gülizar’ın Kara
DüÄ=9Fünü [Black Wedding of Gülizar] published by
Aras Publishing will also be launched during the exhibition opening.

2015 Exhibition Program of DEPO is being realized in cooperation with
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
DEPO 2015 Sergi Programı Calouste Gulbenkian Vakfı iÅ=9FbirliÄ=9Fi ile gerçekleÅ=9Fmektedir.

©2015 DEPO | Tütün Deposu Lüleci Hendek Cad. No:12

Georgian political expert: Putin has put his mind on implementing
Primakov Doctrine

ArmInfo’s Interview with Prof. Nika Chitadze, Doctor of Political
Science, Head of the Georgian Center for International and Security
Studies

by Emmanuil Lazarian
Saturday, March 7, 13:27

Over the past year the situation on the geopolitical map of Eurasia
has unpredictably changed. Russia is building a multipolar system of
international relation. The dividing lines are deepening, though they
were outlined long ago. Don’t you think these are the explicit signs
of a new protracted cold war amid local conflicts?

I am deeply convinced that the cold war has never ended. What we see
today is its new cycle when Russia, which has economically
strengthened over the past 10 years due to the high prices of energy
resources, is contending for the status of a superpower again. Over
the past post-Soviet years, Russia tangibly weakened, lost a great
number of partners, and considerably reduced the sphere of its
influence in Central and Eastern Europe. Now that it has only two or
three “modest” partners within the CSTO, it is violating the
international law principles and actively interfering in the domestic
affairs of the post-Soviet states. In some cases, that interference is
shaped as “soft power”, but in the case of Ukraine (and earlier in the
case of Georgia) it vividly uses “brutal force”.

The thing is that even when it was weak, Russia was trying to recreate
a multipolar world with its own active participation and these
attempts turned into elaboration of the so-called Doctrine of
Primakov, who replaced Andrey Kozyrev as the foreign minister. The
latter recognized the dominant position of the United States and
confined Russia to the status of a regional power. The Primakov
Doctrine received a new impetus following the United States’
intervention in Yugoslavian events. The Doctrine reached its pinnacle
in Vladimir Putin’s speech in 2007 in Munich, where the Russian leader
blamed the USA for creating a unipolar system of international
relations and it was a direct message saying that Russia has its own
serious claims to such a policy. Today we see what those claims have
grown into.

And what have they grown into?

The CSTO is unable to replace the Warsaw Pact, which has fallen into
oblivion, the cooperation with China and the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization and BRICS countries is far from being a military and
political union, the oil market conditions are deteriorating. As a
result, Russia that has been using the oil needle for all these years
is weakening and, consequently, applying more aggression in an attempt
to resist the unipolar nature of the West and to defend its imperial
interests, I think.

I think that most of the Western experts’ publications contain
emotions and hysteria rather than a real analysis of what is going on.
For political experts, historical studies are not chemistry or
microbiology, but the basis of any expert assessments and forecasts.
History has repeatedly confirmed that the more pressure the West
exerts on Russia, the more unpredictable and aggressive Russia may
become. On the other hand, it is clear that Russia is not Armenia or
Belarus; it is a nuclear power with strong armed forces and
geopolitical interests. These interests have seriously been infringed
over the past 10 years. The matter concerns the Iraqi campaign, the
so-called “Arab spring”, the developments in Ukraine, etc. At least,
the Kremlin says so when substantiating Putin’s behavior. One cannot
ignore the fact that Russia will never fall on its knees. On the
contrary, it can become a serious pain in the neck for the whole
Western world.

I should mention that Russia is not the only one to have such a
status. When the great powers of the West would economically weaken
they would become more liberal, more flexible, less aggressive and the
same time they would acquire imperial hang-ups and it would take them
much time and sometimes even human blood to overcome the hang-ups. For
instance, neither Great Britain nor even France has overcome these
hang-ups so far. Japan and even Germany are still experiencing such
hang-ups. The USA is a new power and it has become such a power due to
the stunning economic prosperity. It ensures almost half of the global
gross product. When a state becomes economically strong, its ambitions
and desire to control more global resources are also growing. The USSR
was also such a country, but it weakened in the late 1980s when the
budget deficit rose 5-fold. It was then that the Soviet leadership
agreed to make unprecedented concessions – to withdraw the troops from
Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. The problem is that the Russian
ambitions grew along with the oil price growth. Moreover, the West
imposed no sanctions on Russia following the latter’s aggression
against independent Georgia, but suggested a “reset” policy. However,
it has given no specific results. On the contrary, Russia has started
thinking that its opinion is already taken into consideration. You are
right, Bismarck also spoke of Russia’s unpredictability, though I
think that sanctions, together with low oil prices, are able to weaken
Russia’s imperial ambitions. Russia will have to overcome its imperial
hang-ups, to put up with the reality, and to start taking serious
measures to diversify its economy and improve the socio-economic
condition without relying on oil.

The impression is that history cork-screws and this cannot help
causing concerns.

I guess imperial Russia’s motion path in the modern context will be
adjusted. Russia has all resources and opportunities for that. I mean
the country’s switch to the policy of a liberal empire, which will
allow it to normalize relations with the West on the one hand and to
retain its geopolitical and ideological influence at least in the
post-Soviet space on the other hand. I am deeply convinced that this
idea of liberal Anatoly Chubays is far more efficient and realistic.
Russia has all the necessary material and intellectual resources for
that. This will enhance the confidence in the Russian Federation.
Otherwise, Russia will game away within the long-term outlook.

One of the cold war causes was the ideological confrontation. Now the
matter concerns geopolitical interests only. Russia wants the world to
take the Russian interests into consideration. The West is not going
to do that. This is the basis of confrontation.

Anyway, the Russian approach should not be based on violation of
international law principles. This causes the discontent of the whole
Western community.

Not long ago, the United States also neglected the international law
principles when unleashing a bloody war against Iraq without the UN
Security Council’s sanctions. The entire security system is collapsing
and one can do nothing to stop it.

We can also point out the example of Syria and Ukraine. One can say
that the USA is not an angel. Here we can also bring the example of
Kosovo. There was an obvious genocide there, but Russia exercised
veto. So, where is the fundamental, the basic principle of
international law that concerns protection of human rights and human
lives? Why did Russia neglect 7 chapters of the UN Charter with its
veto?

But peoples’ right to self-determination is also one of the
fundamental principles of international law. It was observed in
Kosovo, but in other cases it wasn’t. The reason is the different
specificity of the conflicts, but no one has any idea of that
specificity.

Yes, double standards are applied. On the one hand, the matter
concerns the self-determination of Abkhazian and South Ossetian
peoples. On the other hand, 2 wars in Chechnya claimed 200,000 lives
for the sake of the country’s territorial integrity. Russia is
conducting the policy “What is permissible for Jove is not permissible
for an ox”.

Have you got your own vision of reformation of the international
security system? No wonder the League of Nations collapsed before
WWII. Is it the UN’s turn now? Is it possible to find new principles
for peaceful co-existence of nations?

The time is ripe for reformation of the UN security system. This is a
very complicated issue. One thing is clear: when 5 permanent members
of the UN have the right of veto, with the other 10 non-permanent
members of the Security Council lacking it, and when no decision is
taken without the consent of any of the permanent members, the matter
concerns spheres of influence, as a matter of fact. So, it is
senseless to speak of a sovereign equality of the states. In our
world, the political realism prevails over liberalism and political
idealism.

Everyone speaks of “realpolitik” and condones the bomb attacks…

Not always. From the viewpoint of realpolitik, Russia should display a
more pragmatic approach to other countries, including Georgia. Russia
is de facto controlling Abkhazia and the former South Ossetian
autonomous region though it could control the entire territory of
Georgia unless its brutal intervention in the conflict. Controlling
20% of Georgia, Russia keeps laying claims to Georgia, which is
striving to join the North Atlantic security system and to integrate
into the EU. That’s nonsense! Russia itself has done its best to make
Georgia unambiguously turn its face towards the West. Where is
realpolitik here? The same concerns the Karabakh conflict. On the one
hand, Russia plays the role of a mediator and a peacekeeper; on the
other hand, it is not interested in the conflict resolution because it
wants both Armenia and Azerbaijan to depend on Russia and does not
want to see the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries as its real
competitors.

It is hard to agree with you. I think it is a seeming scheme. In fact,
there would probably be no peace but for the balance of forces in the
region secured by the presence of Russia’s interests. This is also
realpolitik.

Yes, but if that conflict is resolved on the basis of mutual
concessions of the conflicting parties, nothing will hinder the
process of unification of the South Caucasus. It will not be hard then
to guess whose values the residents of the region will be guided by.

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