Interview with Vladimir V. Kara-Murza, Russian Journalist, Historian, and Politician
By Edgar B. Anderson, LAIKS Latvian Newspaper in USA, October 6-12, 2012
August 28, 2012, Tampa, Florida
EA: How do you see Russia's intentions toward Latvia and the Baltics?
K-M: The current regime's intentions?
EA: Yes.
K-M: Well, I think the foreign policy of the current regime, just as its internal policy is repressive, its external policy is revanchist and aggressive, especially toward the so-called Near Abroad. I mean, we know Putin called the dissolution of the Soviet Empire to be “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” so the policies naturally stem from there. And so what we see in the gas war with Ukraine or in the war against Georgia or in the aggressive rhetoric and the alleged direct funding of kind of “anti-national,” I would say, forces, for instance, in such countries as Latvia and Estonia, forces that include, some of them, openly former Interfront members who advocate the restoration of the USSR and Moscow's allegedly financing them, but just in the general rhetoric we clearly see that the Neo-Soviet flavor to this policy. But I think … there's no conceivable reason, apart from the policies of the current regime, for Russia and its Baltic neighbors to be foes. I mean, let's remember: As we are talking with you the widow of President Boris Yeltsin is in Vilnius, and she is receiving a posthumous award for her husband for his active support of the independence of Lithuania in 1991. You remember the Soviet blockade and the events in Vilnius. Boris Yeltsin, who was then the Speaker of the Russian Parliament, openly came in favor of Lithuanian independence and actually broke the Kremlin's blockade, establishing direct relations between Russia and Lithuania around the then Soviet regime and around the Kremlin. And Yeltsin, when he was alive, he received the highest National Order of Latvia from President Vaira Vike-Freiburga. And the same with Estonia. Yeltsin was the only democratically elected president or any head of state in our history … and, as basically everybody knows, a democracy is not usually aggressive on the world stage. Only a repressive regime is aggressive on the world stage. And so when we had a democratic government in the ‘90s, we had good and normal relations with the Baltic States, and, in fact, as these awards recognize, there probably wouldn't be independent Baltics today if it weren't for the democratically elected leader of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. So I don't see any reason in the future for a democratic Russia and our independent sovereign Baltic neighbors to be antagonists. There's no reason for that.
EA: How should Latvia and the other Baltics deal with Russia because some people say cooperate with them, make them happy, and others say, no, stand up against them?
K-M: Well, I think, certainly stand on the independence and on democracy, and there's no trade-offs on that. And also I would say, you know, we, the Russian opposition say this to all Western countries, not just the Baltics, but this goes for the Baltics as well, always make the distinction between the Russian people and Russian society and the current regime. They are two different things. So if the current regime is aggressive toward our neighbors, including the Baltic countries, it does not reflect what public opinion or society in Russia actually feels and believes.
EA: Finally what about Obama's promise to Medvedev that he’ll be more flexible with Putin and his regime after the election? What does that say to Latvians who are voting in the US election?
K-M: Well, I think even, you know, without this mic remark we've seen many of the policies, unfortunately, of the U.S. Administration over the past years have already been really flexible, whether it was in closing their eyes on the electoral fraud in Russia, or human rights abuses in Russia, or the increasingly aggressive behavior and rhetoric of the current Kremlin regime toward its neighbors, it's already been flexible. In effect there was nothing new in that remark. It was merely confirming what had already been happening. I just want to stress that generally this is not a party issue because with the example … of the Magnitsky Act in Congress, it's bipartisan. It's equally backed by Democrats and Republicans. In fact, the lead sponsors are Democrats. So it's not really a party question. It's a question of values, and it's a question of morality, I think. We've seen in the past U.S. administrations of both parties, Republican and Democrat, close their eyes on human rights and ignore them, and we have also seen administrations of both parties promote the values of human rights and democracy. So I think we can all hope that, you know, the next administration here in the U.S. will not close its eyes on such important issues as the promotion and protection of human rights and democracy, whether it's in Venezuela or Iran or the Russian Federation.
From website of The Foreign Policy Initiative, foreignpolicyi.org:
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza is a member of the federal council of the Republican Party of Russia–People’s Freedom Party, and of Solidarnost (“Solidarity”), Russia’s democratic opposition movement which was instrumental in organizing mass protests after the flawed 2011 parliamentary elections. He was a candidate for the Russian parliament in 2003, representing the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko parties, and has served as campaign chairman for presidential candidate Vladimir Bukovsky (2007–08)and advisor to Duma opposition leader Boris Nemtsov (2000–03). Kara-Murza is the author of Reform or Revolution: The Quest for Responsible Government in the First Russian State Duma (Moscow 2011), and a contributor to Russia’s Choices: The Duma Elections and After (London 2003) and Russian Liberalism: Ideas and People (Moscow 2007). In 2005, he produced They Chose Freedom, a television documentary on dissent in the Soviet Union. From 2004 to 2012, Kara-Murza was the Washington bureau chief of RTVi television. He was dismissed (and blacklisted from the Russian media) over his support for the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. bill that introduces targeted sanctions against Russian human rights violators. He was previously a correspondent for Novye Izvestia and Kommersant newspapers and editor-in-chief of the Russian Investment Review. He has published op-eds in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times and writes a weekly blog, Spotlight on Russia, for World Affairs. Vladimir Kara-Murza holds an M.A. degree in history from Cambridge University, England.
From website of Wikipedia.org:
Vladimir Kara-Murza … is the son of Russian television journalist Vladimir A. Kara-Murza, great-grandson of Latvian revolutionary Voldemārs Bissenieks (1884–1938), great-grand-nephew of Latvia's first Ambassador to Great Britain Georgs Bissenieks (1885-1941), and of Latvian agronomist and publisher Jānis Bissenieks (1864-1923).
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