Interview of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S.V. Lavrov to the TV channel “Russia” for the program “News on Saturday with Sergey Brilev”, 17 in May 2014
Question: Sergey Viktorovich, F. Castro is alive?
Lavrov: Alive, and we wish the same.
Question: Have you seen him? How does he feel, what is he talking about, what is he saying?
Lavrov: Physically, of course, he is weak, but if you could see his eyes! The eyes are burning, the eyes are lit. A person watches literally everything that happens in the world: he is aware of some discoveries by scientists who have discovered a bacterium, which, he said, if it is propagated correctly, will help fight global climate warming. Professionally talked about the prospects for shale gas production and how it will affect the global energy industry.
Q: Is it in 88 years?
Lavrov: This is in 88 years. This is a man who physically suffered several severe injuries and now, for sure, is not in the best physical shape.
Question: Comandante D.Ortege, in my opinion, 69 for years. You communicated with him emphatically friendly, called him "Comrade President". He appealed to you as part of a Nicaraguan family. Is there no danger that this generation will soon happen in one way or another, and the majority of Latin Americans will be among those who voted for the anti-Russian resolution on Crimea in the UN General Assembly?
Lavrov: Here, too, you need to approach not indiscriminately, but in each particular case especially. For example, Chileans voted for the resolution after the reunification of the Crimea with Russia. The resolution was presented under the title “Territorial Integrity of Ukraine”. They were not in favor of an anti-Russian resolution, but voted so, perhaps, from a lack of understanding stories a question. But, for example, in the Human Rights Council (there is such an UN body), where the Americans in connection with Ukraine have already thrown another anti-Russian resolution, the Chileans did not vote for it.
Question: As I understand it, Chile and Peru almost now competed, who will be the first to invite you on a visit? Maybe I'm a bit more exaggerated.
Foreign Minister Lavrov: No, invitations were sent a long time ago.
Question: But they confirmed them.
Lavrov: We coordinated the sequence of these visits.
Question: But the main thing that they confirmed, despite the fact that they voted in the UN General Assembly.
Lavrov: They did not even have the thought to cancel or postpone the visit, as some of our G8 partners did. Recently, we had one guest who directly said that on the eve of his visit the Americans had come and seriously urged them to abandon their trip to Moscow. In general, this, of course, some petty games.
As for the approach of Latin American states, let us not forget that the majority of them did not vote for this resolution of the General Assembly, and four countries spoke with us against.
Question: And all of them more and more often vote jointly on the issue of Cuba. In this sense, as I understand it, if not territorial integrity, so the anti-Russian sanctions are what unite the Latin American countries.
Lavrov: In Cuba, the entire world votes, with the exception of the United States and two or three island states. Answering your question about how generational change will take place in Cuba, in Nicaragua, it seems to me that our close ties, their development in all azimuths is the best guarantee that next generations will know Russia. We pay special attention to the development of youth exchanges. By the way, in Nicaragua I was very pleasantly surprised by the positive changes that occurred in the economy. In recent years, they have experienced steady growth in GDP of 4-5%.
Question: Not without Russian help.
Lavrov: Yes. But it was very significant that the Minister of Finance, who participated in the official dinner, said that they were grateful for the help, but would like to switch more and more to mutually beneficial commercial projects.
Question: And we no longer supply grain there, but they buy it from us, which is nice.
Lavrov: We still supply humanitarian aid, but they already want to buy in addition to it. The element of subsidies will gradually decrease and the element of mutual benefit will increase. This does not contradict the interests of Nicaragua - they see their own benefit in this. On a reciprocal basis, we will be able to implement quite a few projects that were discussed (during my visit on April 29).
Question: Will Russia participate in the project with a new trans-oceanic channel through Nicaragua?
Lavrov: We were told how things are here. A feasibility study is underway and will be completed approximately in June. I confirmed that our companies and state structures will be ready to study this document in order to understand how interesting it is for Russia to join the negotiations that have started the companies of some countries.
Question: Following your visit, I want to repeat my question a month and a half ago: will there be Russian military bases in Latin America, as you said earlier?
Lavrov: Baz will not-they do not need us. Our fleet should be able to surf the oceans, which implies the presence of logistics points where it will be possible to refuel, rest, carry out some minor repairs.
Question: In the region, who is it? Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela? Someone else? One time Argentina was mentioned in this list.
Lavrov: Now I will not say without thinking. We are trying to organize such an item in each country. We will look at the proposals, and where it will be optimal for our naval sailors to coordinate the presence of such points with the host countries, this will happen there.
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