Cyprus-Forum.com

[MrH]

Our View: Why are we in denial about Russia’s realpolitik?

Cyprus Mail: Published on August 10, 2010

THE VISIT of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev to the breakaway region of Abkhazia on Sunday did not receive much coverage here. This could have been because the visit undermined the official mythology of successive Cyrpus governments, that Russia always stands on principle in international affairs and that Russia is somehow different from all other states because its foreign policy, supposedly, is not determined by its strategic and economic interests.This nonsense was exposed by the recognition of the Abkhazia and nearby South Ossetia as independent states by Moscow, which ignored the relevant UN resolutions. Georgia considers the breakaway regions as part of its territory, in exactly the same way the Cyprus Republic views the occupied north. During Sunday’s visit, which coincided with the second anniversary of Russia’s brief war with Georgia, Medvedev said the decision to recognise the independence claims of the two regions was correct. He also pledged more financial support to both.Not surprisingly, Cyprus abstained from voting on the UN resolution condemning Russia’s action in the two regions and calling on it to withdraw its troops. The justification for this decision was the consistent support offered by Russia to the Cyprus government at the UN Security Council - the Federation’s representative had often blocked or changed the wording of UN resolutions at Nicosia’s request. In other words, the Cyprus government also took a stand that was based on interests rather than principles - it failed to condemn the taking over of Georgian sovereign territory by use of military force - in order to maintain its good relations with Moscow.This is how all states operate, but when it comes to Russia our government is in denial, repeating the official mythology about stands on principle and other such nonsense. We refuse to acknowledge that Russia has forged very strong links with Turkey and that trade, plus their co-operation on energy projects, is worth many billions of dollars. Would Moscow jeopardise these interests for the sake of the Cyprus problem? Only a complete fool would believe this.It is not even as if Moscow has tried to fool Nicosia about its very strong ties with Turkey. Nothing illustrated this better than the announcement issued by the Russian foreign ministry, a couple of weeks ago, with regard to President Christofias’ latest package of proposals for the talks. This was “an important step in the effort to find a mutually acceptable settlement” and Russia was fully in favour a Cyprus solution, “based on the agreement, of their own volition, of the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots.” In other words if the Turkish Cypriots did not want a solution that respected human rights and ended Turkish guarantees they were perfectly entitled to reject it.This stand is as ‘principled’ as the stand on Cyprus taken by all the states we naively accuse of being pro-Turkish

[Get Real!]

Post something interesting dude!

You know, one of those funny ones you come up with like...

"It's coming! The TCs have been invited to the UN Security Council!"

[MrH]

Jesus Get Real you really are quick off the mark, you must live here!

Unforunately I'm a very boring fart LOL. As for the TC comment to the UN, whether it's Turkey or TC-TRNX/North Cyprus What's the difference?

As I've always said, Time is running out!

Love,
MrH

[Raymanoff]

Gamoto, this is as boring as my fishing trip a week ago... brrrrrrr....

[Nikitas]

Ray,

I would love to know about the fishnig trip. Start a thread in the General Forum. Give us a break from politics.

[Acikgoz]

Mr H thanks, interesting read - beats the same old repetitive nonsense we often endure on this forum.

[vaughanwilliams]

Ray,

I would love to know about the fishnig trip. Start a thread in the General Forum. Give us a break from politics.

I caught a 16.5kg Albercore Tuna just off Kyrenia harbour last week. I didn't know which GC it belonged to so I ate it myself.

[zan]

Ray,

I would love to know about the fishnig trip. Start a thread in the General Forum. Give us a break from politics.

I caught a 16.5kg Albercore Tuna just off Kyrenia harbour last week. I didn't know which GC it belonged to so I ate it myself.

Brilliant

Mr.H

Far too much reality for our friends!!

[DT.]

Here's the Russian embassy's response to the Cyprus Mail

Mr H and VW, don't let me stop you licking each other's balls.

Response by the Russian Federation to ‘unfounded criticism’
By Sergey Savchenko
Published on August 13, 2010

FOR THE Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Cyprus and for me as a Press-Attaché of the Embassy personally, the August 10, 2010 editorial did not go unnoticed.

It drew our attention, especially by its pompous and rather ironic title “Why are we in denial about Russia’s realpolitik?” As for the content of the article, it cannot but raise questions and objections.

I should say that I regularly read Cyprus Mail. This newspaper is a good source of information about events both in Cyprus and in the rest of the world. Most of its publications are known for their expertise and in-depth analysis, but the piece in question, unfortunately, is not of that kind.

First of all I would like to clarify, whose point of view does the author express, giving a negative assessment of the position of the Russian Federation regarding the recognition of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia?

He seems not to have taken even the slightest attempt to examine the root causes that led to this development in the region. What guided him when he was drawing parallels between the situation in Cyprus on the one hand, and around Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the other?

After all each conflict has its own history and its own roots and we cannot draw parallels only by some outward signs. There are a lot of persons today wishing to equate Abkhazia and South Ossetia with the so-called “unrecognised states”. One should be careful as much as possible with all sorts of parallels – they are relative, far from life, counterproductive, as well as doubtful and totally irrelevant in the case of Cyprus.

From bad to worse – the article calls into question the principles which serve as the basis of Russian foreign policy or, rather, Russia is accused of the lack of such principles. It should be noted that this is a quite a bold and far reaching conclusion, and it is at least imprudent and irresponsible to draw it in respect to the country that has played and continues to play a leading role in preserving peace and stability in some regions, including the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as in the whole world.

And finally, great perplexity is caused by the fact that Russian-Cypriot bilateral relations proved by decades of partnership became the subject of unfounded criticism.

It turned out, that our ties and interaction are not an important factor of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and confidence for Cypriots in their fight for a just solution of the Cyprus problem. It appeared to be a sort of collusion of the parties, based on the principle of “give-and-take”, and the main responsibility for this bears exactly the current Government of the Republic of Cyprus, which supposedly makes it possible, according to the author, to mislead itself and not to notice such obvious evidence of a double game of Moscow in the region as rapidly developing cooperation between Moscow and Ankara.

Even such a clear and seemingly very essential step in the present challenging environment, as the support by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia of the set of proposals put forward by Mr.Demetris CHRISTOFIAS, President of the Republic of Cyprus, in order to accelerate the achievement of the settlement in Cyprus, was described in the article as merely just more evidence of the dual position of Moscow on the Cyprus issue. Frankly speaking, it was at least striking for me, as a diplomat who worked in the Republic of Cyprus for a long time and is closely familiar with the history of Russian-Cypriot relations, to read all these concoctions, which could only have been invented by a person, biased against both the policies of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as the Government of Russia and its invariable position concerning the settlement in Cyprus. Hopefully, the majority of Cypriots do not think so.



Sergey Savchenko is the Press-Attaché at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Cyprus

[zan]

Here's the Russian embassy's response to the Cyprus Mail

Mr H and VW, don't let me stop you licking each other's balls.

Response by the Russian Federation to ‘unfounded criticism’
By Sergey Savchenko
Published on August 13, 2010

FOR THE Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Cyprus and for me as a Press-Attaché of the Embassy personally, the August 10, 2010 editorial did not go unnoticed.

It drew our attention, especially by its pompous and rather ironic title “Why are we in denial about Russia’s realpolitik?” As for the content of the article, it cannot but raise questions and objections.

I should say that I regularly read Cyprus Mail. This newspaper is a good source of information about events both in Cyprus and in the rest of the world. Most of its publications are known for their expertise and in-depth analysis, but the piece in question, unfortunately, is not of that kind.

First of all I would like to clarify, whose point of view does the author express, giving a negative assessment of the position of the Russian Federation regarding the recognition of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia?

He seems not to have taken even the slightest attempt to examine the root causes that led to this development in the region. What guided him when he was drawing parallels between the situation in Cyprus on the one hand, and around Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the other?

After all each conflict has its own history and its own roots and we cannot draw parallels only by some outward signs. There are a lot of persons today wishing to equate Abkhazia and South Ossetia with the so-called “unrecognised states”. One should be careful as much as possible with all sorts of parallels – they are relative, far from life, counterproductive, as well as doubtful and totally irrelevant in the case of Cyprus.

From bad to worse – the article calls into question the principles which serve as the basis of Russian foreign policy or, rather, Russia is accused of the lack of such principles. It should be noted that this is a quite a bold and far reaching conclusion, and it is at least imprudent and irresponsible to draw it in respect to the country that has played and continues to play a leading role in preserving peace and stability in some regions, including the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as in the whole world.

And finally, great perplexity is caused by the fact that Russian-Cypriot bilateral relations proved by decades of partnership became the subject of unfounded criticism.

It turned out, that our ties and interaction are not an important factor of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and confidence for Cypriots in their fight for a just solution of the Cyprus problem. It appeared to be a sort of collusion of the parties, based on the principle of “give-and-take”, and the main responsibility for this bears exactly the current Government of the Republic of Cyprus, which supposedly makes it possible, according to the author, to mislead itself and not to notice such obvious evidence of a double game of Moscow in the region as rapidly developing cooperation between Moscow and Ankara.

Even such a clear and seemingly very essential step in the present challenging environment, as the support by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia of the set of proposals put forward by Mr.Demetris CHRISTOFIAS, President of the Republic of Cyprus, in order to accelerate the achievement of the settlement in Cyprus, was described in the article as merely just more evidence of the dual position of Moscow on the Cyprus issue. Frankly speaking, it was at least striking for me, as a diplomat who worked in the Republic of Cyprus for a long time and is closely familiar with the history of Russian-Cypriot relations, to read all these concoctions, which could only have been invented by a person, biased against both the policies of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as the Government of Russia and its invariable position concerning the settlement in Cyprus. Hopefully, the majority of Cypriots do not think so.



Sergey Savchenko is the Press-Attaché at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Cyprus

A lot of dismissing in there DT but what does he actually say.......Nothing!!!!!