Maria Zakharova Exclusive to Vesti from New York on Trump, Pence, Poroshenko and Others
Hello, Olga, hello, Moscow studio experts. We continue our very special issue. New York-Moscow, Moscow-New York. We're not sure where the most important events are taking place. We have Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Maria, I must begin with the question about the meeting that just ended. It was a bilateral meeting between US and Ukraine, but it still probably concerns us directly, since Poroshenko kept asking for lethal weapons over and over. As Peskov has mentioned before, our President's press secretary, we want to know what official action is coming from the US. Will they give them the weapons? For now, we've only heard of hurricanes from Trump. He hasn't really said anything to Poroshenko. However, we're calculating the steps, that US might supply lethal weapons to Donbass. Where does that leave us?
I think we all remember quite well what slogans Mr. Poroshenko used to get elected. He won over the votes by claiming to be a peaceful President. He said he'd become a peaceful President. He said his main task would be to bring peace to Ukraine. And now, in the fall of 2017, we see how the term "lethal weapon" is used by the peaceful President almost daily. I think this is a great reason to think what position this country is in, I mean Ukraine, and what's coming next.
When it comes to our calculations, of course we're making our own conclusions. I think, for many people, the term "Minsk Agreements" becomes more virtual, but this is today's reality. Either way, we must do everything to move in this direction. We must stay this course.
Right now, within the walls of the UN, which is behind us, they are developing a Russian resolution project, which is about the part that the UN peacekeepers can play in all of this. There has been a lot of speculation concerning this issue. There has been a lot of speculation in the Ukrainian media that these peacemakers will supposedly be located all over Donbass. And so on.
I'd like to remind everyone what we're talking about, since it's an important issue. They will be located along the contact line, where OSCE observers are located, so that they can provide safety for the observers. No more, no less. So with all these ambivalent opinions, we must be extremely precise.
- I just received a message that Trump supported the Ukrainian resolution project, where the peacemakers will be placed on our borders.
- Allow me to tell you this. Right this minute they are working on the resolution projects with suggestions from Russia and from other countries. What will end up on the UNSC table? What will it look like? It's too early to tell.
- Maria, we're listening to you in our Moscow studio, hello. When it comes to urgent messages, Poroshenko did say that Trump supported the Ukrainian version. But, it only concerns Poroshenko's statement, meaning we heard no such thing from Trump in the open area for journalists. We only heard his speech about the hurricanes. So in this case, we will wait confirmation from the Americans. Let me say this, we thought, in our opinion, we saw some sort of diplomatic scandals, or at least unpleasant situations, when Poroshenko didn't listen to Lavrov, he left. Lavrov was absent during Poroshenko's speech. Russian delegation left during Dalia Grybauskaitė's speech. However, they say that the level of Russophobia wasn't that high this time. Is there a Russophobo-meter? Surprisingly, Trump's speech wasn't aggressive towards our country. Which is surprising. What can you say about that?
- I can say that what you said, can be interpreted in other ways. They weren't scandals, as you said, I disagree. When one delegation leaves the room, when they return later, it's routine. This repeats year after year at the UN General Assembly.
- Is the diplomatic term "demarche" applicable here?
- There was no demarche here, nothing sensational about this. You can apply this to any exits and entrances to and from the room, when one country leader verbally attacks another country, I think this is a regular diplomatic practice. Either the head of the delegation leaves the room, leaving his colleagues and experts behind, or the entire delegation exits. I repeat, for as long as this building stands on the East River, we've seen examples like this many times before. This is nothing new, this is all a routine. The other thing is that the journalists use this routine to spice up the General Assembly and other events. They want to serve a delicious, flavorful dish to their audience. However, there is nothing sensational about it.
- So these exits weren't political?
- Of course they were political, this is politics as it is. These were gestures, demonstrating what they like, what they don't like. But there is no sensation here.
- But then, Maria... Then can you maybe shed some light on... A follow up question. Talk to the camera. When it comes to Donald Trump's speech... We thought it was, it wasn't very, I don't know if I can use this term, it wasn't very aggressive towards Russia. However, there were all these secret meetings and urgent, too, like the US media described them. Lavrov arrives, Tillerson asks him to meet urgently. And there was no footage of these meetings. Why? Are we so toxic that they don't even take pictures with us? Please, comment on this issue.
- No, no, Olga, I understand it. I've also read plenty of press on this too. I know what caused all this attention. All of the audience's attention goes to Russia and the US. This includes today's global order of business, where our two countries play a great role. Of course, it's also the turbulence that we have in our bilateral relationship. Thus, the attention is understandable. But the majority of these articles are made up. As for the first meeting between Lavrov and Tillerson, which took place immediately after the arrival of the Russian delegation, it took place in the Permanent Mission to the UN. The Russian delegation arrived there immediately. They went there straight from the JFK airport, where they arrived. In about 15 minutes, I think, Tillerson's delegation arrived there. So as the media saw, Tillerson's cortège arrived, and the negotiations took place. There was a joint decision, considering the urgent essence of this meeting, its spontaneous organization, to not hold the protocol photo and video shoot. The second meeting was held according to the plan. After that, Sergey Lavrov went to the journalists, and told them about it in detail. Different meeting formats, different media escort. Visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, there are plenty of details, there are pictures from those events, where the press was invited to. I also wanted to talk about Trump's speech. Obviously, it caught a lot of attention. Over the past few years, we've heard horrible speeches about Russia from the US President. There were a lot of lies, attempts to make the matters worse, while they have been pretty bad over the years. So obviously, there was a lot of attention to this speech. This was Trump's first speech as a President at the UN General Assembly. I think we should again refer to Sergey Lavrov's comment, where he called this speech rather remarkable. On one hand, the message of the US leadership was noticeable in this speech, and it was expected. At the same time, the US President said a very important thing in his speech. He said both Russia and the US have their own interests, and it's normal. Over the past decades, I think this was a breakthrough remark.
- Did you, by any chance, get the feeling that this was a deliberate "good cop-bad cop" formula? Vice President Pence, who recently made a speech at The Atlantic Council, called Russia one of the three biggest threats. He named Russia, Iran, terrorism. It was repeated in the Security Council. North Korea was fourth on the list. Don't you think that Pence's speech was deliberately to balance the President's speech?
- This is politics, this is political manipulation, considering the legacy that Obama's administration left towards Russia. It was no accident, that right before all the delegations arrived to NY, a video was posted, that's become proverbial. It was the footage of a legendary, talented American actor, Morgan Freeman. There, he informed the US audience that US was attacked by Russia, and so on. This Russophobic message remains. We all know where it's coming from. On the other hand, everyone understands, we hear it from Tillerson in particular, and from many other experts, that the current level of this over-the-top, aggressive attacks on Russia, this thing is an anomaly. It requires some sort of resolution. It's time to bring the bilateral relationship out of this crisis.
- Maria, I know we all have to run, but I have to ask a blitz-question. Was there a jacket with a tank on the Minister, when he was on the plane? Did he have time to change right before the meeting?
- I'm going to say this, follow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on social networks. Maybe, they will post interesting pictures on this matter. Also, I'd like to conclude this program by saying, in about half an hour, Sergey Lavrov will speak at the UN General Assembly.
- Can you give us some ideas about his speech?
- Sure, he'll talk about international rights, about following UN regulations, when it comes to modern reality. I can say this speech was developed very thoroughly. The Minister worked on it personally. I think it will be interesting.
- Thank you very much.
-Thank you. Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.