Demetrius Alex Floudas, Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, and Senior Member of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, offers a commentary about the Ukraine crisis and the sanctions / countersanctions between the West and Russia. This interview aired at the central evening news programme of the Russian RBK-TV channel in November 2014. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The main line of Russian foreign policy in terms of Ukraine over the past 15 years has been directed towards the establishment of an independent state, but under the influence of Moscow," said Demetrius Floudas, formerly Team Leader of the project for the accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization. He added that the West should not be surprised by its reaction after "only six years ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Ukraine's accession to the European Union would be a casus belli for his country." According to Floudas, Russia does not want to join the eastern regions of Ukraine following the example of the Crimea, "for the simple reason that, in this way, its western part will become more western than the West", which will create problems for Moscow. "Vladimir Putin’s call to the separatists to postpone the referendum expresses a real fear precisely because Moscow does not control them," he said. Floudas stressed that while Western interests in Ukraine are insignificant, those of Russia are vital. In his words, its intervention in Ukraine is not related to economic interests but to real geopolitical goals. "I am talking about Russia’s major strategy to restore its position as the second world power which it lost after the fall of the Iron Curtain. We must not forget that, at the conclusion of the treaty for the Unification of East and West Germany, Moscow agreed to sign it only on condition that NATO would not expand eastward. We know very well how, one after the other, the countries of the former socialist bloc joined the North Atlantic Alliance in the following years. In a sense, Russia believes it was deceived by the West and this breeds a feeling of revenge in it," he mentioned, stressing, "The West can live without Ukraine but Russia probably cannot." - See more at: http://www.grreporter.info/en/russia_wants_federal_ukraine/11114 --------------------------------------------------------------- Известный европейский аналитик в области международного права Деметриус Флудас, приехавший в Россию, чтобы прочитать лекцию студентам Российского экономического университета им. Г.В. Плеханова, рассказал в интервью РИА Новости о санкционной политике и ее возможных последствиях для российской и европейской экономики. — Господин Флудас, есть мнение, что экономические санкции, введенные против страны, могут помочь стимулировать развитие соответствующих отраслей ее экономики. Подобный сценарий возможен в России? — Действительно конкурентоспособность отдельных российских компаний может быть увеличена. История знает такие примеры. Введение санкций положительно повлияло на Иран, активно стимулируя развитие местной фармацевтической отрасли и производства оборудования для нефтедобычи. Принципиально и то, что благодаря санкциям российский потребитель сможет повернуться к российским товарам, изменить свои потребительские стереотипы. Когда ситуация вернется на прежние рельсы, потребитель сможет сохранить данную положительную тенденцию.

• published: 15 Mar 2015
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