Vafa Quluzade: "Russia's abilities do not allow it to hope for competition with the United States for whom it is just a younger partner"

-How would you comment on the information that French powers agreed to provide political refuge to former Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili?

- It is not a surprise that Irakly Orkuashvili found refuge in France, which is one of the leading countries of Western Europe.

The West is absolutely calm about Georgia, ruled by pro-Western Mikhail Saakashvili, who will calmly transfer powers to his successor, who will also be pro-Western. This may be both Okruashvili and Nino Burdzhanadze, who resigned from all positions to further run for President of Georgia or Gerogy Khaindrava, who is among one of the most charismatic leaders of Georgian opposition.

In other words, the West has attained elimination of any pro-Russian forces in Georgia and Russia can do nothing about it.

-But doesn't the very fact of providing refuge in France imply that this one of the leading countries of the West recognizes that the Georgian working powers are not democratic in pursuing their opponents for political motives?

-There are no dogmas in politics. Yes, in one case provision of political refuge to anyone really implies the country's recognition that the state, which this man was obliged to leave, has problems with democracy and persecution of its political opponents.

But in other cases, provision of political refuse does not imply the recognition of these facts. In this case, I do not see any problem that France provided political refuse to Irakly Okruashvili as the relations between Georgia and the West will not deteriorate.

-In other words, you do not consider that the said fact and the fact that despite powerful support of the United States, Georgia failed to join the Plan of actions on membership in the alliance as leading European states preferred not to hurry with positive decision, are connected.

-As is known, the United States is a country, which is pragramic in adopting geopolitical decisions and therefore, they prefer to attain admission of new members to NATO only by peaceful means.

At the same time there is a NATO charter which says that countries, which have unsettled territorial conflicts can not join the NATO members.

In other words, the United States have an area for maneuver and they may ignore the said regulation of the charter and attain admission of its new allies to NATO by the power of its being a super-state and can also put off the settlement of this issue, without insisting on its immediate resolution. The point of the issue does not change-NATO is expanding and Russia can do nothing about it.

-In other words, do you consider that Georgia's and Ukraine's accession to NATO will be possible in the nearest future?

-I am sure that the soonest accession to NATO is possible not only for Ukraine and Georgia but also for Azerbaijan and Armenia. This will be just a logical continuation of a large geopolitical process, which started with the USSR collapse. We should realize that Russia has become a part of world economy, regulated by the United States and part of world political process, which is also regulated by the United States.

-Why then are the United States not able to prevent Russia's attempt to speculate with the unsettled territorial conflicts on the territory of the former USSR?

-I am sure that Russia will further continue attempt to speculate with the unsettled conflicts on the territory of the former USSR till the end, as Russia, following the USSR collapse, failed to become a democratic country. It remained an empire, which includes forcedly annexed peoples and territories, dreaming of independence.

Only after all of us will deal with quite a different country, when Russians will create their own democratic state, not harassing anyone, we will speak of Russia. Now we are speaking about the Russian empire.

-When will we have a new Russia?

-If I knew the answers to all questions I would play lottery and would become rich. Nevertheless, I would like to note that this process is underway and it is irreversible. Look, what's going on with Russia at the moment! So many years have passed since the USSR collapse, but they are still dreaming of stopping being a country of raw materials. We all see that a criminal oligarchy of Russia sells crude to the West to put the incomes on their accounts in the western banks to have a luxurious life. 3% of Russian population adheres to this lifestyle, while the rest try to survive, serving to this fat cats. This is a city of plague.

-How should Azerbaijan behave in this conditions?

-Our country is under West's influence. At the same time, Azerbaijan should not provoke Russia and on the other side it should build its relations with Russia on basis on equality. We should realize that until Russia has empire ambitions, its leadership tends to return Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and other countries of the former USSR.

But we should also be aware of the gap between ambitions of Russia and its real abilities. Its abilities does not allow Russia to hope for competition with the United States for whom it is only a younger partner. This means that Azerbaijan should continue this external policy, it currently adheres to. And I am sure that this will lead to return of our lands occupied by Armenia.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is obviously right when he speaks of supremacy of international law, which states priority of territorial integrity of the countries in the resolution of "frozen" conflicts. This right will be used in case of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

At present we see desperate attempts to prevent accession of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to NATO for which it tries to use its last argument-unsettled territorial conflicts in the South Caucasus. But these are the last, desperate steps, which are doomed to failure. As soon as Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia join NATO, all conflicts in the South Caucasus will be settled.

/Day.Az/