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You can hear me on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme defending Georgia (and taking a shameful cheap shot at my old friend Gideon Rachman).
And on the BBC World Service Newshour programme (about 50 minutes in from the start of the programme) at rather greater length
Friday, May 09, 2008
BBC interviews today
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8 comments:
Dear Mr Lucas
Here is your BBC Radio interview on Georgia on the Youtube with some illustrations
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=3KVw7eJCnac
Thank you very much Mr Lucas,
Sincerely
George Nikoladze
p.s That wasn't "a shameful cheap shot" but a well deserved one. If we overlook the events in Georgia than we shall expect same treatment of Russia's other neighbors such as Balts, Ukrainians and so on. There are also Russian citizens in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, not to mention in Ukraine. If Germany would have been stopped at Sudetenland, maybe there would have been a different outcome of the events which followed. It seems that we never learn, or at least Western Europeans don't.
You´re outdated, you still think in WWII framework.
Anton, its not me who is outdated but your officials in State Duma and in the cabinet of Russia's double Presidency. Its not my fault that Russia still acts like its WWII and this time it more reassembles Third Reich than anything else (parallels are obvious).
First of all, they´re not my officials, I have an EU passport and I currently live in Germany.
You have got to be losing the grip on reality if you are convienced that Russia is the 30´s Germany.
I really don´t see any evidence or reasons to even make such comparisons. Of course there are some general parallels and possible resemblances.
You probably see Abkhazia as the next Sudentenland but let me guess, you are probably from Georgia, how likely is it that you´re going to be objective. If you seriously believe that Russia will invade the Baltics and Georiga you have got to be insane.
I´d like to hear those obvious parallels, please.
There are plenty of parallels but why waste my time? "First of all, they´re not my officials, I have an EU passport and I currently live in Germany." Well I presume you are not German or member of any European nations, and presumably you are Russians and hence my "your government" categorization, if it offended you, my apologies. As for being objective, I don't claim to be objective and i don't think any of us are able to be objective on any given subject, surely you can't be objective either, especially when it comes to Georgia/Abkhazia. Congratulations with EU passport, I guess Russian one wasn't that useful.
Cheers.
p.s on parallels, Mr Lucas has richly insightful, enormously informative and well analyzed book, "The New Cold War" pick it up sometime and you'll see what I mean.
Unfortunately I never had a Russian passport either, my government deemed me to be not worthy of an EU passport, so for most of my life I possesed an alien´s passport, despite having lived in that Baltic country for most of my life, basically allowance for residence but not an indication of nationality of any sort.
Nevertheless, I see no reason why I should be biased against Georgia for that matter, I am not brainwashed with anti-western campign like many russians are, I have access to both western and eastern points of view on these matters.
I have come across Mr.Lucas´s insight and his book for that matter of fact, however personally I found these parallels historically incorrect and inapropriate. Occasionally it lacked evidence or fact and sometimes the author has bent the truth.
As for the WWII rhetoric you mentioned, I haven´t seen much of it from the Russian officials, what I normally come across, is the deputats bragging about how bad the roads are, how hospitals need more resources and the education in Russia is in ruins.
I´m sure you´d love to see your country Georgia as the ultimate battleground of superpowers, as the last tip of freedom a Berlin or Saigon of some sort, nevertheless its way far from the reality. You´re probably too paranoid to realise that Russia has far more important internal issues than Georgia or Abkhazia, the Duma don´t sit there discussing day to day how to regain the Soviet Empire, they discuss issues that are vital for the country, ie. education, demography, they are far more important for Russia than Abkhazia.
This is where I think you and Mr.Lucas is horribly wrong, I don´t know when was the last time you were in Russia, but you are dillusional.
10 years ago Russia was on brink of collapse, things have gotten better and today all Russians want, and I mean the people, the government, Putin: is stability.
What third reich resemblence?
Russian army is falling into pieces, the budget of Russian military is nothing in comparison to that of US, the pacifist Germany spends more money on its military than Russia.
The reason why, Russia is playing tough nowadays is because that is the only way to co-exist with the west, it is blatant, cruel politics. 90´s Russia was weak and the West spoke of equal partnership and friendship but what happened was Russia was used and abused. The West only appreciate and understand fear and strength. Because western governments do not want and need a strong re-emerging Russia, they never have, they never will. That is why we have been seeing so much of the muscle flexing from the Kremlin, because you can´t be nice with the west, last time it happened Russia was humiliated.
Russia is in its post-imperial state, if you like and the so-called bullying of its neighbours is a natural development for a fallen empire, the French had a war with the break-away Vietnam, Britain imposed embargos on its break away African States. Therefore I am sure that eventually Russia will loose interest in the former Soviet Space. They are of low GDP value and with a hugely anti-russian population what would be the point of re-conquering the Baltics or even Georgia? They have NATO behind them, the risk is not worth it. Merely for land purposes, Russia has plenty of it, plenty of natural riches.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
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