Russian President Vladimir Putin defended last week Moscow's improving ties with Soviet-era allies such as Iraq, Cuba and North Korea and vowed to continue building closer trade relations with Iran.
"In the Soviet era, we frightened the world so much that the world created huge military blocs. This did not help," Putin said in an interview on RTR public television. "Over the past 10 years we decided that everyone loves us a lot. But this turned out also not to be the case. We have to put aside our imperialistic ambitions, but also figure out what our national interests are and defend them," he added.
Putin, who has visited Cuba and North Korea, said that while Soviet relations with its former Cold war allies had been strictly "ideological" Russia would now use its influence with these countries for pragmatic reasons.
Turning to Iran, the Russian president conceded that the international community had legitimate concerns about security in the Persian Gulf but insisted that Moscow was right to help its companies to do business there.
"There are clear changes taking place in Iran. We must take into account our interests, we must help our companies work there," said Putin. Only days before November's US presidential vote, Moscow told Washington it was scrapping a secret five-year-old agreement to cease conventional arms sales to Iran.
The decision prompted the White House to warn that trade ties could suffer as a result, although no direct measure has been taken since.
Russia's decision to renew arms negotiations with Tehran will prove "very lucrative" for Moscow, which could earn up to seven billion dollars over the next few years, said a senior lawmaker. "Russian-Iranian military cooperation should resume with a strict respect for accords forbidding sales of nuclear arms," the head of the lower house's defense committee, General Andrei Nikolayev, told a news conference.
"Military cooperation, including the training of military specialists, could generate between two and seven billion dollars over the next few years, which is very lucrative for Russia," added Nikolayev, a former border guards chief.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov later brushed aside a US warning that Moscow could face economic sanctions if it went ahead with supplying military hardware to Iran. The views of Moscow and Tehran "coincide over a number of international problems, in particular the situation in Tajikistan (an ex-Soviet republic in Central Asia) and in Afghanistan," the general added.
Tehran and Moscow are both reportedly providing military support to Afghan opposition forces fighting the Taliban regime, and have expressed concerns about a spillover of the conflict into neighboring Tajikistan. — (AFP, Moscow)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
