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'Serious reasons' to think sanctions aim at regime change: Russian FM

16 December 2014, 17:07 CET
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(PARIS) - Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday he had "very serious reasons" to think Western sanctions were an attempt to force regime change in Moscow.

Sergei Lavrov also told France 24 television that the sanctions showed the European Union was not independent from the United States when it comes to foreign policy.

Asked whether the sanctions were an attempt to force the current leaders from power, Lavrov replied: "I have very serious reasons to believe this is the case. Some politicians don't even try to hide it."

He said US Vice President Joe Biden had publicly said that Washington had ordered Europe to join sanctions against Russia.

"Frankly it's really a pity that for many years, we overestimated the independence of the European Union and even big European countries," said Lavrov.

"I can assure you that Russia will not only survive but we will come out stronger. We have been in much worse situations in our history and every time, we got out of those fixes much stronger," he said.

"This will happen this time."

Nevertheless, he also admitted: "Well of course it hurts. We don't take any pleasure from sanctions."

"But it's not our problem. It the problem of the European Union, the United States and other countries."

Lavrov also took a shot at members of the US Congress who on Saturday unanimously approved fresh economic sanctions against Russia and lethal weapons for Kiev.

"Congress is a very special group of people: more than 80 percent of them never left the United States. They live in their own world, so I'm not amazed at this Russophobia," said Lavrov.

"We want to see what (US President Barack) Obama does because the bill is not automatic," added Lavrov.

The measure is aimed at Russia's defense and energy sectors, punishing companies like state defence import-export company Rosoboronexport.


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Politics vs Business

Posted by Davor Bilobrk Zekan at 16 December 2014, 22:14 CET
Political principles are generated from universal ones of civilized societies, while business principles are purely existential ones... Politics is a source of disputes and business of understanding... It is the question is it possible to monitor and to operate mentioned categories separately... Willingness and determination to resolve disputable elements probably is conditioned by existential needs of individuals and societies.

Ukraine can be federalized... and if that possibility solves a portion of European - Russian affairs, then it deserves additional attention and effort by individuals and entities in charge. Additionally intensified tensions would be and are mutually harmful.

About eventually existing open questions in the domain of European - Russian trade, Russia is a member of World Trade Organization... and a set of large deals on export - import of oil, gas and other raw materials probably can be reached via WTO's capacities...

Politics vs Business

Posted by Amit Bari at 13 January 2015, 14:14 CET
I know many successful businessmen, and a number of successful politicians. In my experience, businessmen generally think that they are smarter and tougher than politicians. “Smarter” goes without saying, “tougher” means that they interpret politicians’ equivocations and changes of position as weakness. I think the businessmen are wrong on both counts. Successful politicians, on the average, are both “smarter,” i.e. abler, and tougher than successful businessmen.
In the business world, Mitt Romney is as successful as anyone can be. No one attains his level of achievement without enormous talents and an oversized ego. Yet, compared to John McCain, Romney is modest and self-effacing. As a businessman among politicians, he is a boy among men.
Politics attracts the most ambitious and ruthless of men. (That’s the real reason why, at its upper levels, politics, much more than business, is dominated by men, not women.) In many countries, men with unnatural appetites go into politics because if they are successful, they will be able to have the people they don’t like shot. Here in America, we don’t shoot our political losers, and politics is not just a variety of organized crime. Still, many of the same sorts of people are attracted to it.

'Serious reasons' to think sanctions aim at regime change: Russian FM

Posted by android babbles at 17 December 2014, 13:39 CET
Sergei Lavrov also told France 24 television that the sanctions showed the European Union was not independent from the United States when it comes to foreign policy.
Thank you!