WORLD-TYRANT WORLD 08 29 14 2

WORLD-TYRANT WORLD 08 29 14 2 

Seliger 2014 National Youth Forum [Excerpt] 

29 August 2014, 17:00, Seliger, Tver Region 

http://eng.news.kremlin.ru/news/22864 

Vladimir Putin is visiting the Seliger 2014 10th National Youth Forum.  The Forum’s current participants, gathering under the name of the Knowledge Generation, include postgraduates and young teachers from around Russia in the fields of history, political science, sociology, philosophy and economics. 

The President’s discussions with Forum participants cover current issues in Russia’s political and economic life and international affairs. 

* * * 

Excerpts from transcript of meeting with Seliger 2014 Forum participants 

MODERATOR KSENIA RAZUVAYEVA: Mr President, we are happy to welcome you to the Seliger Youth Forum’s fifth session. 

This year, the Seliger Forum is celebrating its tenth anniversary.  This session, where everyone was looking forward to your visit, is quite unusual, perhaps even the most unusual so far over this decade. 

Here today we have 800 teachers from Russia’s top universities.  They work in philosophy, economics, political science and sociology.  They are our country’s future and our intellectual elite. 

The floor is yours. We were looking forward very much to your visit and we are very pleased to see you. 

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, friends, 

Thank you for your words of welcome. 

It is even a little daunting to meet with such an audience because… well, you understand what I mean. (Laughter).  The fields in which you work are areas that arouse interest in the past, present and future all at once. 

It is not easy to talk with professionals who know the answer to questions such as whether philosophy is a science or an art.  Not everyone would be able to say, but philosophers can probably tell us and will perhaps share the answer with us today. 

It is an even harder task to speak with historians who can analyse everything that has happened in our country’s past and the world’s past, look back in retrospective and look too at where we are going and what we need to do to make our road forward as effective as possible, so as to reach the goals that we have set. 

Sociology is another matter altogether.  They know everything.  And they certainly know it better than anyone else.  But let me say that this is indeed a very interesting group that has gathered here. I think we will have the chance to discuss issues and exchange views on our country’s development and its place in the world. 

Of course I am not only happy to answer your questions, but would be interested to hear your views too.  This is extremely important because this is a rare opportunity to meet with people like yourselves in such number and format and be able to have a frank and open discussion. 

Let me end my remarks here. I propose that we move on to the discussion itself. 

ALEXEI MAKARENKO: Good afternoon, Mr President. My name is Alexei Makarenko and I represent the International Graduate School of Management at the St Petersburg State Polytechnic University. 

Even though our forum has an education focus, we are actively following current events in the world, and many of the current events concern Ukraine of course.  In particular, there was your meeting with President Poroshenko in Minsk, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement about the plans to send another humanitarian convoy.  There was also the news about the local militia’s plans to continue their humanitarian-military operation, and there was your recent appeal to the militia to open a humanitarian corridor in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.  There have also been a number of media reports that Western [World Tyrant / NATO] countries might hold discussions on possible further sanctions, and then there have been reports that a group of Russian servicemen was detained on Ukrainian territory. 

In this context, could you please give your view of the current situation and say something about how it is likely to develop? 

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Let’s start with the question of our servicemen. I have already said that we have had cases of Ukrainian servicemen ending up on Russian territory, and in far greater number too.  In one case there were 450 people, and in another case there were 60.  Just recently there were another 60 servicemen with their arms.  There were cases when they ended up on our territory and said that they had got lost – in their armoured vehicles and with their weapons. 

This is the truth in fact. I am serious here. I believe that they did get lost because there is no demarcated border there.  If military operations are underway or our servicemen are patrolling the border, this is entirely possible.  I think that this matter is therefore a technical one. 

Mr Poroshenko and I discussed this issue, and he assured me that the Russian servicemen would be handed back to Russia, just as we have handed over Ukrainian servicemen and continue to do so. 

What’s more, we provided them with medical assistance, treated them in our hospitals, and so there is every reason to believe that both sides will behave in proper fashion in this matter. 

As for the situation overall, it is far more serious of course.  To repeat what I have already said about what happened, President Yanukovych postponed the signing of an economic agreement with the European Union because he believed that the document still needed substantial additional work. 

Our Western partners [The World Tyrant / NATO], with the support of fairly radically inclined and nationalist-leaning groups, carried out a coup d’état there.  No matter what anyone says, we all understand what happened.   There are no fools among us.  We all saw the symbolic pies handed out on the Maidan.  This information and political support, what does it mean?  

This was a case of the United States [The World Tyrant] and European countries [NATO] getting *fully* involved in a change of power, an anti-constitutional change of power carried out by force, and the part of the country that does not accept this change is being suppressed with brute military force and the use of planes, artillery, multiple launch rocket systems and tanks.  If this is what today’s European values are about, then I am more than disappointed. 

What happened next?  We had numerous discussions with the Ukrainian leadership, the US [World Tyrant] leadership and the European [NATO] countries about the need for an immediate end to this fratricidal war and the start of negotiations.  What did the Ukrainian government propose three or four weeks ago after all?   Unilaterally it all sounded so fine: “We have ended military operations.” But then the very next thing they say is that the ceasefire will last for seven days and whoever does not lay down their arms will be destroyed.  Is this the road to negotiations?  This is an *ultimatum*. 

Of course the people who had taken up arms could not agree to these conditions.  After all, they took up arms so as to defend themselves and their lives and dignity.  The military operations then resumed once more and what do we have today?  The Ukrainian army has surrounded small towns and big cities and are firing directly at residential areas in order to destroy infrastructure and crush the will to resist and so on. 

Sad as it is to say, but this reminds me of the events of World War II, when the Nazi troops surrounded our towns, in particular Leningrad – you are from St Petersburg, yes? – and fired directly on the towns and their people.  On Nevsky Prospekt, as you know, you can still see the sign “Citizens! Take care: this side of the street is most dangerous in artillery attacks.”  This is the point things have come to.  This is terrible!  This is a catastrophe!  I can therefore understand the militia in southeast Ukraine, in Donbass and Lugansk, for attempting to defend themselves. 

Why do they call their operation a military-humanitarian operation?  What are they trying to do today?  They are trying to push back artillery and multiple launch rocket systems from the big towns so that they won’t be able to kill people.  But what do we hear in response from our Western partners [The World Tyrant / NATO]?  We are told that they do not have the right to do this.  They are supposed to let themselves suffer, let themselves be killed, and then they will be considered good guys?  We need to sit down at the negotiating table. 

It has become clear to me now that our partners’ [The World Tyrant / NATO’s] position amounts to saying that yes, we do need to begin negotiations, but first we need to let the Ukrainian government shoot for a while, and then they might be able to swiftly bring some order there. 

But it is time to realise that this is not going to work, and we need to make the Ukrainian authorities start negotiations of *real* substance, negotiations of substance.  Not just talk about the technical issues, which are important too of course, as they deal with humanitarian matters such as prisoner exchanges, as they call it, and other issues too. 

There need to be negotiations of substance.  [Foreign Minister] Lavrov was here, and the diplomats love this term.  Negotiations need to work out in substance what rights the people in Donbass, Lugansk and the entire southeast of Ukraine will have.  Their lawful rights and interests must be formulated and guaranteed within the framework of modern civilised rules.  These are the issues that need to be discussed.  From there I am sure it will be relatively easy to settle matters concerning the border, guaranteeing security and so on.  But *the problem is that they [The World Tyrant / NATO] do not really want to talk*. 

Now concerning my appeal about the humanitarian corridor, I saw in the news reports above all, and also from the reports of our special services what is happening.  I saw the reactions of mothers and wives of these Ukrainian servicemen who are surrounded. This is a tragedy for them too. This was why I appealed to the Donbass militia to open a humanitarian corridor so that people could leave.  Many of them have been there for several days without food or water.  They have run out of ammunition.  They should be given the chance to leave. 

The latest news is that the Ukrainian military commanders and the leadership have decided not to let them leave this encirclement and are making attempts to push back the militia forces and fight their way out.  I think this is a colossal mistake that will lead to much loss of life.  This is terrible. 

Now, on the substance. This is an immense tragedy, this conflict in Ukraine.  There are historians here, and people with their own views on our country’s history might argue with me, but I think that the Russian and Ukrainian peoples are practically one single people, no matter what others might say. 

Correct me of course if you want, but just listen first. There was no Russian people as such back then.  There were Slavic tribes.  Some say there were 16, others 32, people have different figures for these tribes, Slavs, Drevlians and so on.  And with the baptism of Rus, Vladimir was himself first baptised in Chersonesus, and this makes Crimea a holy place for us too, and he then came to Kiev and had the whole of Rus baptised. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chersonesus#mediaviewer/File:Ancient_Greek_Colonies_of_N_Black_Sea.png

It was after this that the Russian nation began to take shape, but it was multi-ethnic right from the start.  People living in what is Ukraine today all called themselves ‘Russian’.  Yes, there was Galicia, the territories in the west, close to Western Europe, and it was natural that they developed particular relations with the Catholic world and their neighbours through the intermingling of languages and cultures.  But they should not impose their views on their entire Ukrainian people. 

My point is that I think that what is happening in Ukraine today is an immense common tragedy for us all.  And we need to do everything possible to end this tragedy as soon as possible.