| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Armen Oganesyan, Editor-in-Chief of International Affairs: To sum up the results of the year, we have invited to us Sergey Alexeevich Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. 2012 was rich in international events. Which of them would you highlight with a plus sign and which with a minus sign?
S. Ryabkov: I'll start with the minuses, they weren't that many.
Syria is a minus in the sense that the situation has not improved, and Russia's efforts to develop a platform on which to work towards a Syrian-led settlement did not materialize due various reasons.
Another minus that I would put after this one is the lack of adequate progress on a number of aspects of our relationship with the U.S. In some ways, there was a serious backslide. We see what emotions the year's end has struck: the Magnitsky Act and the inevitable retaliatory steps that we are taking have seriously complicated our relations.
There are also downsides which are not as "politically charged," for example the difficulties that we are having in a visa dialogue with the European Union.
I shall name among the positive results the creation of the Eurasian Economic Commission made up of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan; strengthening of the Collective Security Treaty Organization; and the development of relations with a number of countries in different regions, including Latin America. Russia's accession to the WTO is a big plus. And then there is the BRICS - certainly not describable as a bureaucratic structure, but it is also not a loosely knit, non-cohesive group. Our work is progressing quite well in this direction. There are other pluses. We look to the future with optimism. Gone are the election cycles in Russia and the U.S., America's new administration is taking shape, and we are entering Obama's new presidential term with certain expectations.
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