Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-19-Speech-3-155"
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"en.20031119.6.3-155"2
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"Mr President, I think that, when we talk of Russia, we are all obliged to turn something of a blind eye, or I at least have the impression that, since the fall of the Wall and the collapse of the Soviet regime, everyone feels obliged to turn a blind eye.
At the time, we were very pleased about the democratic development under Mr Yeltsin, and we obviously did not see the unbelievable corruption developing in Russia. Today, we are very pleased about the advances under Mr Putin, and we do not see the deliberate farce of the media monopoly. I shall not for the moment talk about the arbitrary arrests and of Chechnya, to both of which I shall return at the end of my speech.
Why are matters like this? Because the fact is that Russia is a huge power at our borders, and no one knows exactly how to take the bull by the horns, all the more so because everyone wants to have Russia on its side. Mr Poettering, I know it is difficult to criticise one’s friends when they make mistakes. You knew, moreover, how it pained me to see my Foreign Minister constantly beside Mr Putin defending a just position concerning Iraq. In other words, the Chechens were sacrificed for Iraq. On the other hand, it is obvious that the Americans were doing exactly the same thing. If the Americans said ‘yes’ to Iraq, it is because the Chechens no longer interested them either. It is therefore the same situation on both sides.
I believe there is a fundamental problem here. If we believe – on the pretext that we need, as indeed we do, a strategic link with the Russians – that we have to indulge them, then we are mistaken. We are mistaken, moreover, because the results will never be commensurate with what we expect. We say ‘yes’ to the democratic process in Russia, but when extremely significant problems arise and the President in charge of Europe is happy to say to Mr Putin, ‘But what you are doing in Chechnya is fine; your arresting people is not a problem; as for the media monopoly, that too is fine’, then the evil has been done, notwithstanding the host of resolutions you may subsequently produce. Moreover, the evil has been done for a long time to come, because no one in Russia will dream of saying, ‘Yes, that is true. There is the European Parliament. Yes, that is true, there is Mr Verheugen and the Commission’. These things do not count, because they know that, when problems arise, the need to manage them will carry the day. ‘We need you, Mr Putin.’
To summarise, any fuss made by Parliament and the Commission does not bother them, which means that, when it comes down to it, the situation in Russia will not change. That is why I tell you that, if we do not clearly denounce the massacre of a whole people that is being organised in Chechnya, Mr Putin will never listen to us. When Mr Putin moralises, perhaps with good reason, about Iraq, he does not think about what we are saying, because it is of no consequence to him. He is using Iraq as a tool, as he needs to use everything as a tool, in order to establish his power in Russia: a totalitarian power.
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