Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the 70th UN General Assembly session to set the tone for a broad international discussions. All international issues are closely intertwined. One mistake leads to another. That’s the essence of Russian approach. The situation in the world, including Europe, is intolerable. It’s impossible to challenge this statement made by Russian President in his UN speech.
The main thing is to find ways to put an end to Middle East conflicts and stop refugee flows to Europe, the problem that has greatly exacerbated recently.
According to Moscow, it’s imperative to urgently develop a comprehensive strategy of political stabilization, as well as social and economic recovery, of the Middle East – the region which has become the source of refugee flows, terrorism and social-economic degradation threatening to encompass entire regions.
The unilateral interventions of the United States and its allies into Iraq, Libya, Syria and other countries, which were undertaken bypassing the United Nations, sparked a destructive chain reaction to result in the refugee flows with hundreds of thousands people coming to Europe this year.
«Rather than bringing about reforms, an aggressive foreign interference has resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions and the lifestyle itself. Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster. Nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life,» emphasized Russian President.
Thus, the Middle East is the region where we should clean out the mess. Priority should be given to creating a solid foundation based on international law. For this purpose the United Nations Security Council should adopt a corresponding resolution aimed at coordinating the actions of all the forces that confront the Islamic State and other terrorist organization. This idea was put forward by Vladimir Putin. «Then, dear friends, there would be no need for new refugee camps,» the Russian President concluded.
Will Western powers and their regional allies listen to the Russian leader? They seem to be at a loss guided by political inertia. In his UN speech US President Obama slammed Syrian President Assad calling him «a tyrant», thus adopting the rhetoric used by the Islamic State.
Leading media could not resist the temptation to compare the UN speeches delivered by Russian and US presidents. Even those who have little sympathy for Moscow had to admit that the Russian President’s position was constructive. For instance, Luke Harding, former foreign correspondent with the Guardian who was banned from Russia in 2011 for meddling into the country’s internal affairs, finds the current Russian proposals on Syria to be reasonable.
«The question for Obama is this: does he accept Putin's offer of cooperation over Syria? If the answer is no, what's the White House's alternative?» – Harding asks.
According to the Guardian bemoaned «a world in which egotism reigns supreme» and railed against the arrogant hubris of the West». Bloomberg, a financial news and media company, paid special attention to the Russia’s proposal to set up a joint information center to coordinate the Russia-Syria-Iran-Iraq operations against Islamic State militants. In the opinion of Bloomberg this initiative will enhance the role of Moscow while reducing the influence of the United States.
According to a CBS News newscaster, Putin succeeded in dissipating the fears of many Western politicians about Russian expansionism.
For its part, German political weekly Spiegel offered a detailed analysis of the speeches delivered by Russian and US presidents comparing the two clashing points of view. The magazine described it as a «duel of speeches». Obama called for more diplomacy and less confrontation. According to Spiegel, the US President’s speech was first of all addressed to skeptical American public. The Putin’s speech shows that «he wants Russia to be back at the centre of the world community as an equal power along with the United States», – the Spiegel article says. That is corroborated by his words that the UN Charter was signed in Russia. In his remarks, the Russian leader did not mention the United States and President Obama directly. As the magazine points out, it was clear that Putin did not try to curry favor with Washington. He showed his resolve and slammed the United States while touching on many issues.
Chinese news agency Xinhua sounded even more critical writing about the Obama’s diplomatic debacle. According to it, the important role of the New York meeting of the two leaders was partly in braking down the international isolation imposed by the United States and its allies against Russia after the events in Ukraine. The White House needs Moscow to end the chaos in Syria and the Middle East. This situation was created as a result of US interference into the affairs of other countries. Washington had to admit the fact that Moscow has an important role to play in the international fight against terrorism… Thus, Russia takes the diplomatic lead again.
