Notice, I'm not saying this, and people, well versed in politics. But their thoughts intersect with some of my statements and respond to the statements of opponents , denouncing the United States.
note, who initiated actions in Libya according to Zlobin.
Wire: BBC News (BBC) Date: Mar 22 2011 12:40:33
BBC Ex-USSR: Russian pundits’ opinions split over military operation in Libya
Russian pundits seem to be divided over the implications of the
military operation in Libya, Russian corporate owned TV channel REN TV
reported on 21 March.
Nikolay Zlobin, director of the Russia and Asia programmes at the
World Security Institute, was shown saying that the USA should not
take all the blame for the operation as it is the least interested
party. "Libya is not a key state for the USA," he was shown saying.
"They are not too concerned about Libya’s fate, they have other allies
and enemies in the region. The two per cent of oil which Libya
supplies to the world market is, of course, a lot, but it is not the
key factor either," he added.
Zlobin went on to say that the operation was initiated by other Arab
states who wanted to eliminate al-Qadhafi’s rule. "I think the West
mostly reacted to the possibility to eliminate al-Qadhafi’s regime at
the request of the neighbouring states who are very fed up with him.
Several Arab states are directly taking part in the military operation
today, and several Arab states are supporting it financially or with
logistics, sending arms to the insurgents. I think that Arabs want to
sort out their own issues with the help of the West," Zlobin said.
Yevgeniy Satanovskiy, president of the Institute of the Middle East,
also pointed to the fact that some Arab states were taking part in the
operation in Libya: "Al-Qadhafi is not much better than those who are
toppling him. His problem is that he is a man nobody likes. There are
no people in the Arab states who would defend al- Qadhafi. There is
not one leader in the Arab world who he [al- Qadhafi] has not snubbed.
Crusaders from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Jordan – what
kind of crusaders are they?" he said.
Maksim Shevchenko, director of the Contemporary Religion and Politics
Strategic Studies Centre, was, on the contrary, very critical of the
West: "This war [in Libya] has all the traits of a colonial war. In
the nineteenth century France occupied Vietnam and made it its colony
under the pretext of defending a good local king from a bad one. It
has always been like this in the history of colonialism: Western
countries occupied territories, be it India or Africa, first
initiating a conflict inside these peoples whose territories they
wanted to occupy and then defending a weak one from a tyrant,"
Shevchenko said.
"There is no guarantee [that Russia will not be attacked in future].
Russia is next. There is no doubt. And these events [in Libya] prove
this," he added.
Originally published by REN TV, Moscow, in Russian 2030 22 Mar 11.
(c) 2011 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest LLC.
All rights Reserved.
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