Russia, active player in starting Syria talks: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Fred Weir, a journalist and political commentator in Moscow, to discuss the remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Moscow is ready to work with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as the US and Saudi Arabia in finding a solution to the Syrian conflict.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all, share with us your thoughts on the recent statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding ending the conflict in Syria?

Weir: Well I think that we have seen breathtaking amount of progress in the last couple of months. It is just extraordinary how after four years of seemingly impossible multi-sided conflict and just an endless list of destruction the Russians intervened and although it is not really a big or strong intervention militarily, they did succeed in completely changing the conversation and making it seem urgent and necessary to get some kind of diplomatic process on track and that has happened.

I mean you cannot say the Russians deserve all the credit but it seems like they were at least the catalysts and a very active player in getting these talks going in Vienna, in New York last week and the United Nations passed for the first time a resolution on the way forward but it is not extraordinary and Putin he is giving a round of … interviews right now so he is saying a lot of different things but he has every reason to extol Russia’s role in that it is a party that has been consistent all along and it is able to talk in different directions with all the other players and that is basically what he said.

Press TV: He also had his fair share of criticism for Europe. He stated that European countries are lacking an independent foreign policy and if partially transferred their sovereignty over to the US. Can you elaborate on that for us?

Weir: Well this is a long-standing Russian frustration about Europe and especially acute with the sanctions that were just, all the whole array of sanctions against Russia over Ukraine have just been renewed even though we know there is a great deal of dissent within Europe about it, somehow that seems to get rubber-stamped from the Kremlin’s point of view.

So he is just saying this, it is clear that Europe is a big entity, it is locked into the NATO alliance, it is a partner with the United States, we know that everything Europe does it discusses with United States. I think the Russians are just frustrated with this. It is not new and he is not like giving us any kind of news flash. He is just expressing his frustration. 

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