MOSCOW, March 21: Russian President Vladimir Putin kept up Moscow’s opposition to the US-led Iraqi campaign on Friday expressing fears it could sow unrest in Russia and its neighbours in the former Soviet Union.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, meanwhile, branded the US action as illegal and said President George W. Bush’s assertion that it would liberate Iraq from a brutal leader “can only cause bewilderment”.
Putin, speaking to officials from member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States which groups Russia and 11 other former Soviet republics, said: “The crisis has gone beyond the framework of a local conflict.”
With an eye to former Soviet Central Asian states with large Muslim populations, Putin said the war “is now a potential source of instability for other regions of the world, including the Commonwealth of Independent States”.
The Kremlin leader, who has called for a rapid end to the war and dubbed the US action a “big political mistake”, said on Monday he had to bear in mind the sensitivities of Russia’s own 20 million Muslim citizens.
Of other CIS members, most of Uzbekistan’s 25 million people are Muslim while Kyrgyzstan also has a large Muslim population.
In a speech to the State Duma (lower house), which was described by Russian television as “emotional”, Ivanov said: “Current military actions by the United States and Britain have no legal grounds.
“Attempts to present these military actions as something aimed at liberating Iraq can only cause bewilderment. No one ever asked the United States to liberate Iraq from anyone.”
Despite its new warm ties with Washington since the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, Moscow had firmly opposed Washington’s hawkish line against Baghdad by seeking a political solution to the issue of disarming oil-rich Iraq.
“Without a relevant decision by the UN Security Council, (Iraq’s) occupation will be the result of an illegal use of force against this country’s territorial integrity and political independence,” Ivanov said.
Despite the harsh words by Putin and Ivanov, Alexander Saltanov, a deputy foreign minister, strove to limit the damage to US-Russia relations.
“I don’t think our relations with the Unites States are cooling down,” he told Itar-Tass news agency. “Quite the opposite, both countries have confirmed that the continuation of dialogue and development of ties were in their interests.”—Reuters