Interview with Dalia Gribauskaite, Lithuanias President (and the only EU leader who says what needs to be said) by Lally Weymouth: The problem is that Putins Russia today is ready and willing to go to war. Europe and the West are not ready and not willing to go to war. There is no leadership in Europe or in the world able to stop Putin. Afterwards, we will be surprised that new territories are taken, that new countries are partitioned, and it will be a lot more costly and too late maybe to solve it.// /LW: Are you worried he will next attack the Baltics?/ If he will not be stopped in Ukraine, he will go further. /LW: So Article 5 and NATO are not enough?/ No. No. Everybody declares that NATOs Article 5 will take place. But it will not stop Putin from his plans if he does not see real actions from the European and world leaders. They are only talking. We need to stop him in Ukraine. And until now, that is not understood. That is why I am saying that in Europe today, leadership is taken by Putin, not by the West. ///LW: Do you feel you have enough protection after the Wales summit? / After Wales, NATO is revived, not sleeping any more. We have something to improve our security. We need to invest more. But how much time do we have? The danger of Russias behavior today is not smaller than what we have with ISIS [the Islamic State] in Iraq and Syria. /LW: //So you think both ISIS and Russia are terrorists?/Yes. I think that Russia is terrorizing its neighbors and using terrorist methods. /LW: But the world is more concerned with ISIS./ Of course. Unfortunately, this is a perfect position for Putin to do what he wants. In reality, these so-called peace negotiations in Minsk were done under the ultimatum of Putin. Western countries and the European Union gave into his conditions, meaning practically the partitioning of Ukraine. /LW: The US sent Ukraine MREs [meals ready to eat] and they were delivered in German trucks so as not to offend Putin. / Why are we so busy trying not to offend Putin, who is today sending his troops to kill and occupy Ukrainian territory? Why are we not sensitive about what Ukrainians are feeling? Sooner or later we will call him a terrorist and a criminal.// /LW: Does the situation remind you of the Sudetenland?/We with open eyes are allowing the partition of Ukraine.// /LW: So the sanctions are not hurting Putin? /They are not sufficient. But if he will go further, maybe countries will apply more serious sanctions. LW:/The head of Ukrainian intelligence told a US official that they had to agree to the cease-fire./ Yes. The Europeans and other countries asked [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko to agree to conditions that were unacceptable because [they amounted to a partition] of Ukrainian territory. /LW: So Russia got Crimea and now eastern Ukraine?/ With the applause of European and other leaders in the world because they didnt help Ukraine at all. /LW: You worry about your own country. / All neighboring countries to Russia are under threat now. He is threatening them and joking that they are not real states. /LW: Will the result be a war?/We can avoid a war. If both sides are ready to go to war, there will never be a war. If Russia is willing to go to war and the West avoids it, Russia will go as far as it will. /LW: The US appears to be more interested in making a nuclear deal with Iran./ If we see that for some reason we are selling out independent countries, what moral values are we fighting for?// /LW: You think that is true?/ When I see how the process is going, it is very much possible. The conditions of the cease-fire were done on Russias proposal. The West is not militarily supporting Ukraine. Russia is allowed to do whatever it wants on Ukraines territory. It is a shame on all the Western leaders to allow an aggressor to do what he wants with a sovereign country in the 21st century. We were occupied for 50 years, and we know how to deal with this neighbor. What is surprising is that countries far away that have never been touched by aggressive Russian policy are afraid of dealing with Russia. Only countries with a border, Baltic states and Poland, are vocal. It is our one tool to fight Russia: to be vocal and courageous and to shame leaders of the West for not taking the responsibility for protecting freedom, sovereignty and democracy in Europe.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 01:44:16 +0000