United States fails to build up full-scale anti-Russian coalition, Russian diplomat says

MOSCOW, January 26 /TASS/. The United States has failed to build up a full-scale anti-Russian coalition, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and State Secretary Grigory Karasin told the Federation Council upper house of Russian parliament on Monday. In his speech at the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs, Karasin noted a rising wave of extremism and terrorism in the Middle East and Northern Africa. “We have been trying to draw the attention of our international partners /to this problem/ for a long time,” the Russian diplomat went on to say as he reviewed the results of 2014. “Such state of things has become possible largely due to the flawed practice of exporting democracy and imposing on other people values that are alien to them; the weakening of state institutions in a number of countries of the region and division of terrorists in ‘good’ and ‘bad’,” Karasin explained. “Having proclaimed a slogan to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the West has been turning a blind eye to the fact that extremists have been strengthening positions in that country for several years. That contributed to meteoric spread of the ‘Islamic State’ threat,” the diplomat said adding that the recent terrorist attack in France had clearly demonstrated that terrorism was spreading beyond the regional boundaries. “As Russian President Vladimir Putin said, despite all the hardships in 2014 Russia managed to go through the trials which only a unified and mature nation could cope with. It proved in deed that it can protect its compatriots and defend the truth and justice with honor,” the Russian diplomat stressed. “The president-approved multi-vector foreign policy has proven to be effective in practice,” Karasin said. “Despite unprecedented efforts, Washington has failed to build up a full-scale anti-Russian coalition. /Russia/ maintained contacts with most states and even managed to build up an equal and mutually respectful dialogue on a wide range of issues with a whole range of countries,” the Russian diplomat said. Russia favours a peaceful settlement to the Ukraine crisis on the basis of the Minsk agreements reached thanks to efforts by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Karasin said touching upon the Ukraine crisis. “We will continue working towards the creation of favourable climate in Ukraine to enable it to solve its full-scale problems. At the same time, we are making it clear that any attempts to exert pressure on Russia by unilateral illegitimate sanctions will not force us to give up our well-considered and principled policy line,” the diplomat told the lawmakers. “Russia is not going to discuss any criteria for lifting the restrictions. Let those who imposed them make the first step,” the Russian diplomat added. Russia, Karasin went on to say, is urging the Contact Group for Ukraine to continue its work. “Today the need to launch an inclusively inter-Ukrainian dialogue with an aim to reach an agreement on constitutional order remains urgent. In this connection, we are calling for establishing stable direct contacts between Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk and for further work of the Contact Group,” Karasin stressed. The bankrupt political elite in Kiev have failed to rally the country behind itself. That is why they have chosen in favour of a military solution in southeastern Ukraine. The Kiev authorities have committed several crimes against civilians in recent days such as the shelling of a public transport stop in Donetsk on January 22 and the tragedy in the port city of Mariupol on January 24. Dozens of civilians were either killed or injured in those incidents. Read more