President Vladimir Putin said it was not Russia’s business to analyze the foreign policy of European countries, but discussing inter-European affairs with European partners in Washington “is not very interesting”.<\/p>\n
The Russian president spoke to the Swiss RTS TV channel.<\/p>\n
Asked to comment on the \u201cironic\u201d turn in European politics, which has seen right-wing political parties gain public support, and seemingly speak out in favor of Putin\u2019s statements as opposed to politicians on the left, the President said the underlying reason was Washington\u2019s troublesome interference into the domestic affairs of other nations.<\/p>\n
Putin has received support from Marine Le Pen of France\u2019s National Front or Swiss Democratic Union of the Centre (UDC). He described it as a \u201ctectonic shift in Europeans\u2019 public conscience\u201d in the direction of protecting national interests, including from foreign political interventions.<\/p>\n
According to Putin, a number of issues Europe is facing now, including the influx of migrants from places such as war-torn Libya, have to do with \u201cdecisions taken over the [Atlantic] ocean.\u201d In fact, Europe is now paying for decisions it did not make, he stressed.<\/p>\n
He also mentioned that the US has been \u201cpursuing an imperial policy for a long time.\u201d In addition, he cited the opinion of some American political analysts who \u201cbelieve that this imperial angle hurts the US.\u201d<\/p>\n
After several questions from Swiss media on the FIFA corruption scandal, Putin said he doesn\u2019t believe it had anything to do with actions of the organization\u2019s head, President Sepp Blatter, hinting that he views the allegations as politically motivated.<\/p>\n
He questioned whether the efforts to pursue the investigation stemmed from failed attempts of the US and its key ally, the UK, to secure bids to host the 2022 and 2018 World Cups: \u201cThe way this fight against corruption looks makes me wonder if it isn\u2019t a continuation of the bids for 2018 and 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said European countries should be less beholden to military blocks and the US when considering issues concerning their own national interests. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be great to see Europe show more independence and sovereignty, and the ability to stand up for its national interests \u2013 the interests of its peoples and countries,\u201d Putin said in an interview with RTS published on Monday.<\/p>\n
He added that he \u201chopes\u201d another war in Europe is not in the cards. <\/p>\n
The Russian leader added that a certain level of sovereignty is undoubtedly lost when joining any “any military-political organization [or] military-political bloc.” Putin noted that \u201cFrance withdrew from NATO in order to preserve its sovereignty to a greater extent than would have been possible had it been part of the organization,\u201d referring to the French withdrawal from NATO in the 1960s. France fully returned to the military bloc only in 2009. <\/p>\n
Putin explained that Russia\u2019s stance on US foreign policy \u201chas nothing to do with anti-Americanism,\u201d adding that Russians \u201chave respect and great love for the USA, and especially for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
When answering a question about Russia\u2019s earlier efforts to fight terrorism and the lack of Western support at the time, Putin said that European governments had ignored abundant evidence of terrorist activity, such as Al-Qaeda affiliates fighting in the Russian North Caucasus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I asked my colleagues, including Europeans: \u2018You see what is happening?\u2019 they used to respond: \u2018Yes, we do, but due to various domestic, international circumstances, we cannot support you.\u2019 I would tell them then: \u2018If you cannot support us \u2013 at least don\u2019t hinder our efforts.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Putin criticized the US government\u2019s self-perceived right to pressure other countries around the world, acting from a policy of \u201cwho is not with us, is against us.\u201d Still, with enough patience it is possible and necessary to work with the American side on solving global issues, Putin said, praising international efforts that have led to a recent deal on Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Vladimir Putin said it was not Russia’s business to analyze the foreign policy of European countries, but discussing inter-European affairs with European partners in Washington “is not very interesting”. The Russian president spoke to the Swiss RTS TV channel. Asked to comment on the \u201cironic\u201d turn in European politics, which has seen right-wing political … Continue reading “Putin on rise of right-wing in Europe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":19880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[70,963,3133,66,1638,67,727],"class_list":["post-19879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-eu","tag-politics","tag-right-wing","tag-russia","tag-us","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-washington"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/putin5.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19881,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19879\/revisions\/19881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}