Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-16-Speech-4-108"
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"en.19990916.7.4-108"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we perhaps have to remind ourselves that much has happened in Russia: over 5 000 nuclear warheads have been withdrawn from use, democratic institutions have been created, and the media there may criticise the government, and, in fact, dare to. It is true the media is more and more passing into the hands of the few, the very people who, as the previous speaker reminded us, have acquired common property for themselves. At the same time, however, we must remember that Russia’s leaders are primarily and directly responsible to their own people, the Russians themselves.
I would like to raise the issue of this ruthless campaign of terror and bombing – the most recent explosion took place yesterday evening. The intention of this action is to create instability in the whole area, for the whole vast region, and it is happening at a very awkward time. Russia has two elections in the near future, the situation is very tense, the country has a sick president, and the whole economy is in difficulties. We must condemn, as we are now doing, those states that are aiding the terrorists in their aim to create new instability in a region where there is enough of it as it is.
We should not speak of a financial crisis in Russia, however. Russia has a political crisis, and that has continued since the country changed direction. We can certainly see the reasons for this political crisis, but the situation will not be remedied with money, however much of it you heap on Russia. We have seen how things go with money: they go fairly badly.
With regard to the West, I would really like to bring up another issue. We still have no clear policy on Russia, although we have a bulky agreement on partnership and co-operation. We have practised collaboration in many ways and we support democracy and civil society in Russia, but, for all that, we do not understand Russia. One reason for that is, in practice, we do not know the Russian politicians very well. We have concentrated on one person, or one body of people, in fact, on one narrow group of people in power. As a consequence, what happens in Russia always takes us by surprise. We should therefore broaden the scope of our political contact with Russia, and, this would help us to understand the changes that take place there so unexpectedly.
We know that our financial aid and food aid have pretty much slipped into the hands of those for whom it was not intended. It is the Russian elite that are guilty of this, a group we have had no hold on. I think we should discover how, for example, the competition for transporting food aid granted to Russia by Europe was organised. I perceived problems there, and I would ask the Commission to give an explanation of this affair. In this situation, however, it is necessary to increase co-operation with Russia, and not terminate it. The Northern Dimension, medical care, the Nordic regions, etc, will all be important. Now Russia needs from us very concrete proposals on co-operation, and that is why I regard the aspect of the Northern Dimension as so important, and I hope the Commission will act."@en1
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