RUSSIA HAS EXPERIENCE IN SETTLING INTERETHNIC CONFLICTS
Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 16 2015
16 February 2015 – 8:36pm
Veronika Krasheninnikova, the head of the Russia Today Center
of International Journalism and Studies, the director general of
the Institute of Foreign Political Studies and Initiatives, deputy
head of the Presidential Council Committee for Social Support of the
Population of the Southeast of Ukraine, a member of the Russian Public
Chamber, has visited Vestnik Kavkaza today. She gave an insight into
the Russian position on conflicts in the post-Soviet space and the
world and relations with the South Caucasus states.
Speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Krasheninnikova
emphasized that it was one of the most tragic pages in the history
of the USSR, independent Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. She
called Yugoslavia an analogy of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
where interethnic tensions had sparked the tragedy. In her words,
Russian history has unique experience in solving such problems. The
USSR consisted of 200 ethnicities, according to the expert. She urged
the modern generation to use the experience to build a future.
Krasheninnikova pointed out the progress of Russia in developing
relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia, their reaching a new level in
2014. The analyst reminded about the meeting in Astrakhan and progress
in the settlement of Caspian problems. In her opinion, the authorities
of Azerbaijan have the political wisdom to make the right decisions.
Armenia, says Krasheninnikova, made the right choice by joining
the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. She
reminded that the Baltic states had joined the EU in May 2004,
their population had decreased by about a quarter or a third, their
economies entered a deep crisis. The expert noted that the U.S. and
NATO members continued paying special attention to the countries of
the South Caucasus. Not a week went by without NATO drills, visits
of defense ministers and of other military officials in July-August.
Krasheninnikova added that the Ukrainian crisis had made the region
even more topical. Russia Today prepared a report “The Trans-Caucasus
in the strategic plans of the U.S. and NATO” with “a very deep”
study of the actions of the Americans and their allies in the Caucasus.