Novo-Ogaryovo: In an interview aired on Russia’s state Channel 1 television, President Vladimir Putin discussed a wide range of issues, including disputes over the Syrian civil war and his relations with President Barack Obama Here are five thoughts from Putting during the interview he gave late Tuesday.
1. Chemical weapons videos don’t prove Al Assad is guilty: “These are horrible pictures. The question is only who did it and what they did, and who is responsible for this. These pictures do not answer the questions I have just posed. There is an opinion that it’s a compilation by these very rebels, who are connected with Al Qaida and who were always distinguished by exceptional brutality.”
2 Russia won’t rule out military action on Syria — if the UN approves: “I do not exclude this, but I would like to draw your attention to one absolutely key aspect: In line with international law, only the UN Security Council can sanction the use of force against a sovereign state. Any other pretext or method which might be used to justify the use of force against an independent sovereign state is inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression.”
3 Russian shipments of air defence system to Syria are on hold — for now: “We have a contract for the delivery of the S-300s. We have supplied some of the components, but the delivery hasn’t been completed. We have suspended it for now. But if we see that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world.”
4 Relations with Obama can be testy — but that’s normal: “President Obama hasn’t been elected by the American people in order to be pleasant to Russia. And your humble servant hasn’t been elected by the people of Russia to be pleasant to someone either. We work, we argue about some issues. We are human. Sometimes one of us gets vexed. But I would like to repeat once again that global mutual interests form a good basis for finding a joint solution to our problems.”
5 Don’t read too much into body language: “There are some gestures, of course, that you can only interpret one way. But no one has ever seen those kinds of gestures directed by Obama at me or by me at Obama, and I hope that never happens. Everything else is fantasy.”
—AP