BBC Monitoring Quotes From Russian Press on Wednesday 4 April 2007
The following is a selection of quotes from articles published in the 4 April editions of Russian newspapers, as available to the BBC at 2300 gmt on 3 April 2007.
Iran
Nezavisimaya Gazeta (centrist daily) www.ng.ru – “Delays with the supply of nuclear fuel for the nuclear power plan that is being built by Atomstroiexport in Bushehr became a pretext for Tehran to announce the necessity of continuing uranium enrichment.”
“By the way, one cannot rule out that the delays with the supply of nuclear fuel suit both sides. By delaying supplies, Russia is trying to avoid accusations of arming Iran from the world community, be it with peaceful nuclear technologies in the circumstances where tensions are building up in the Persian Gulf and there is a growing sentiment in the world against Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran, in turn, justified the need to independently enrich uranium with the inability of Moscow to adhere to its obligations.”
[from article by Nadezhda Pomerantseva, headed "Moscow pushed Tehran towards nuclear independence"]
Ukraine
Rossiyskaya Gazeta (state-owned daily) – “The crisis one is observing in Ukraine is threefold, therefore it would be extremely difficult to overcome it. The first of them is the crisis of power.”"The second crisis is caused by the fact that there are essentially two constitutions in the country.”"The nature of the third crisis is that Ukraine is at the edge of a chiasm. This is the trend fuelled today by street rallies in Kiev. And the division of the country into two confrontational camps, something that was thought could not be repeated after the orange revolution, could happen now. This is a very dangerous phenomenon.”
“The current conflict in Ukraine will not be resolved quickly, it is too serious. One could only hope that the events would not develop along the lines of the scenario of October 1993 in Russia. I see the only way out of the situation if all the powers – both parliament and the president – undergo re-election. This is the only compromise to which the parliamentary majority, or the eastern part of Ukraine, as one can already say, would agree.”
[from article by Alexander Rahr, expert of the German Council on Foreign Relations, prepared by Darya Yuryeva, headed "There are many worst case scenarios and one best case scenario"]
Krasnaya Zvezda (Defence Ministry daily) – “Ukraine is again in a crisis. And it is deeper than two years ago when during the orange revolution hundreds of thousands of people came out to the streets.”
“It is difficult to say how the events will develop in the future. In any case it is obvious that even if early elections to the Supreme Council, at which the Party of Regions and its supporters in the coalition are predicted to win, the confrontation in Ukraine will not end”
[from article by Vladimir Kuzar, headed "One is again being called to barricades"]
Moskovskaya Pravda (popular Moscow daily) – “If elections are held, [President Viktor] Yushchenko would lose. His supporters, who think that they have not received enough, will go over to the side of [Yuliya] Tymoshenko, and [PM Viktor] Yanukovych, if he would not strengthen his positions, at least he would retain it.
“The president will lose both in the event the escalation of the situation and confrontation on Maydan [Independence Square in Kiev]. Power-wielding structures support the government and unlike in 2004, Kiev is indifferent to the developments.”
“Now Russia will have to get involved – at least to ensure that a civil war is not going to break out in the neighbouring country. Who benefits from this?
“Probably those who are not satisfied with the position of Moscow on Iran, which, it seems, could be attacked in the near future. And Ukraine: What about Ukraine? This is only a subject for international bargaining. And this is why Yushchenko signed his decree at this very moment.”
[from article by Vladimir Kreslavskiy, headed "Decree signed in Washington"]
Vedomosti (business daily) – “Constant squabbles between the president, government and parliament have lead to a situation that the political crisis in Ukraine has become permanent.”
“Strangely, Yushchenko has serious chances to play for good results. The style of Tymoshenko is relentless pressure, the style of Yanukovych – games in the apparatus. Yushchenko with his readiness for compromises is in a favourable position in the present situation. Will there be elections or not, it is unlikely that a fully-fledged coalition that is capable of consistently standing up to him would be gathering in the parliament.”
[from an unattributed article headed "Dear friends"]
Novyye Izvestiya (daily) www.newizv.ru – “Political events in Ukraine are developing in keeping with the most confrontational option.”
“Viktor Mironenko, head of the European Union and Eastern Europe Centre of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
“‘At the moment, perfectly expected and predictable events are taking place in Ukraine. It is no secret that there are several Ukraines: cultural, linguistic and, therefore, political. And this means that a search for all kinds of compromises is required in the country. One could find them only if there is a parliamentary republic. Therefore I think that President Yushchenko made use of the last chance. He saw perfectly well that the situation in the parliament, when the Party of Regions enticed deputies of other factions, which are no longer under his control, to join it, and, therefore, the parliament could not continue fulfilling the function of the ‘stabilizer’ in the country. From here there is the conclusion: early parliamentary elections is the most appropriate option for the events to develop.’”
[from article by Yana Sergeyeva, headed "At he last line"]
Komsomolskaya Pravda (popular tabloid) www.kp.ru – “Natalya Narochnitskaya, deputy chairwoman of the State Duma international affairs committee: ‘I don’t think that there will be vast upheavals. As a result of new elections the status of the party of Yanukovych will change little and Yushchenko will lose. But for Tymoshenko this is the only chance to get the seat of prime minister and access to gas. This capricious lady was stamping her feet and, as a result, got what she wanted.’”
“Sergey Markov, director of the Institute for Political Studies: ‘There will be long and sticky arguments that will end in a compromise. Either Yushchenko revokes his decree about the disbanding the parliament or there will be elections of parliament and president.’”
“Boris Nemtsov, politician: “Everything is well there. This is a new country getting established. Peacefully. There will definitely be no blood spilled. And the economy of Ukraine is growing faster than that of Russia because the bureaucrats are fighting and not hindering people from doing work.’”
“Aleksandr Dugin, political scientist: ‘Civil war is inevitable. I think that it will start no later than in about half a year to a year. As the result, at least two states will emerge.’”
“Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of the State Duma committee for civil and criminal legislation: ‘I hope Ukraine remains and things will settle without the use of force. The political chiasm, of course, is obvious. But I think that the country will not split up.
[from unattributed article headed "What will now happen to neighbours"]
Ukraine: parallels with Russia in 1993
Vedomosti (business daily) – “‘The events are not similar to 1993 [in Russia] and if they look similar, then only in form. Who would win in 1993 was determining where the country was going to go. Here the difference is perhaps about the speed at which it will join NATO. One should rather speak of a retaliation attempt in power struggle,’ according to Mykhaylo Pohrebinskyy [Mikhail Pogrebinskiy], director of the Kiev Centre for Political and Conflict Studies.”
[from unattributed article, headed "What year arrived in Ukraine?"]
Izvestiya (pro-Kremlin daily) www.izvestia.ru – “The events in Ukraine are painfully closely reminiscent of the tragic October 1993 in Russia. The same confrontation between the parliament and president. The same unwillingness of opponents to listen to the arguments of each other. The same bitterness of two camps, mutual accusations of usurpation of power and violations of the constitution.”
[from article by Yanina Sokolovskaya, headed "Ukrainian crisis: Who will take country through Maydan?"]
Gazeta (general daily) www.gzt.ru – “The confrontation between the president and the parliament has moved to the stage of close combat.”
“If one was to imagine the impossible – confrontation with the use of force in the manner of that in Moscow in 1993 – Yushchenko and Yanukovych have approximately equal chances of winning.”
[from article by Gennadiy Savchenko, headed "Fighters went to close combat"]
Sources: as listed
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