Euractiv publie un entretien atypique avec l’actuel ambassadeur de Russie auprès de l’UE, M. Vladimir Chizhov.
Ce diplomate y fait preuve d’un franc parler et d’un sens de l’humour/understatement assez remarquables.
Nous en reprenons ici quelques extraits particulièrement savoureux (1) :
(À noter le passage où il qualifie la chute du mur de Berlin d’ “une victoire du sens commun”…)
Now about the ‘brain death’ of NATO…I was speaking recently to a colleague of yours, I was asked this question, and my answer was fairly short: in order to suffer brain death, you need to have a brain in the first place. [Laughs]
You mean Brexit. But precisely the departure of the UK allows the French President to push for another type of EU, one element being changing the rules of enlargement. Is this what you mean?
I wasn’t very surprised when that decision [not to start accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania] was made public. Judging by many circumstances, to say that they have fulfilled all conditions would have been an obvious exaggeration.
Why is Turkey buying Russian anti-aircraft weapons, the S-400?
Because they are very good [smiles]. They are much better than the American ones. See what happened in Saudi Arabia.
Isn’t it because S-400 will allow Turkey to wage a war with another NATO country, which is not possible with US equipment?
You mean Greece?
Yes.
Well, Greece already has Russian anti-aircraft systems.
Russian equipment bought by NATO allies makes a war possible between them.
You are suggesting the perfect solution. Let both Turkey and Greece buy Russian military airplanes [laughs].
Let’s face it: the fall of the Berlin Wall was a victory of the West.
I see it differently. I would say it was a victory of common sense. And so it was our common victory.
Under the new president Zelenskiy. You seem to like him.
It’s not a matter whether I like him or not. But I have sympathy for him, because he got into this mess totally unprepared. The only background that he had was from those TV series that brought him to the presidency, let’s face it. On the other hand, as somebody said, that many countries in the world are led by comedians… At least this one is a professional [laughs].
Even if hard evidence is found that Zelenskiy ordered research on Biden Junior?
I don’t think this would have huge significance for the Ukrainian electorate. Meanwhile, I don’t know what will happen to my neighbour [US Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s Brussels office is close to Chizhov’s]. It looks like he has become more popular than he would ever wish.
I got your message that the worst of Brexit is yet to come. Are you one of those who believe the conspiracy theory that Brexit was designed to destroy the EU?
No. It looks more like a plan of self-destruction of the United Kingdom.
JGG 15/11/19