– Is the partitioning of Russia made impossible by its vast size, or abundant resources? And what path will Russia choose: will it try to assert itself, or attempt to maintain its already existing relations with the West?
– The territory of the Soviet Union was once the territory of the Russian Empire and, as we can see, it has disintegrated, so Brzezinski’s plan worked. This also happened to other countries. Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic state and it fell apart, but I could also mention Hungary, which was a strong and proud power until it was torn apart by the Trianon Treaty. In each case, the pattern was the same - the weakening and dismantling of unified, independent states. Russia is doing quite well. Its economic growth exceeds 3.5 percent of GDP, it has low public debt, rising real wages and low unemployment, and all this amidst the unprecedented international sanctions.
– Are these sanctions effective?
– They are effective in destroying our relations with the West, with the United States, Europe, Canada, or Japan. But that's why we had to reorganize our economy, and we did. Now our biggest trading partner is China, and trading with India is also on the rise, it is becoming one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil. As a result of the sanctions, advanced industries, such as civilian aircraft manufacturing, have strengthened. There were no major developments in this sector around the turn of the millennium, but today we manufacture as many as two aircraft that rely solely on Russian technology and components. The Suhoj Superjet is already flying, the other MC-21 is in test mode. We are successful, and of course we could be even more successful if the West had not refused to cooperate with us.
The full interview will be published on Saturday.
Cover photo: Yevgeny Arnoldovich Stanislavov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Budapest (Photo: Istvan Mirko)
