ICRC president lauds relations with Russia

GENEVA, November 7. /TASS/. The International Committee of the Red Cross /ICRC/ has very good relations with Russia at present, President Peter Maurer said in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on Friday. “The ICRC has been stepping up its interaction with Russia’s Red Cross and government,” Maurer said adding that the bilateral co-operation had rooted in the period of WWI. “We have been co-operating for decades but have boosted our partnership in recent years, especially at the beginning of the armed conflict in the Caucasus, and we deepened it even further when Russia backed up the ICRC activity in Syria,” he said. Now that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine “has begun to arouse Russia’s concern, this co-operation has become closer.” “We are keeping in touch with the Russian government and are hopeful that Russia will be more active in supporting ICRC in other parts of the world, to speak nothing about Ukraine or the Caucasus,” Maurer said. “Russia, its government and the Russian Red Cross have a great respect for our unbiased position,” the ICRC president said. “Maybe, in certain cases the Russian Red Cross and the Russian government believe that we should make more efforts in one place and less in another one.” “But I think there is a good understanding of the mandate and activity of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” he said. “And we receive a considerable support from Russia in lots of important operations, I’ve mentioned before, in Syria, the Caucasus and Ukraine.” Read more on tass.ru