Speaking in Berlin this week ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit in Hamburg, Pushkov, a senior Russian senator who specializes in foreign affairs, outlined what he said were some of the reasons why Western elites have engaged in a campaign to blame Russia for everything that goes wrong in their own countries.
Noting that an attempt is being made to rationalize the various political crises facing the Western world by pointing the finger at Moscow, Pushkov said that this is done "because otherwise those people who rule the Western would have to say that their own policy was the reason for their mistakes."
This is done, Pushkov stressed, "because otherwise the US political elite would have to say that they brought the country to a situation [so bad] that a majority of people decided to elect an irresponsible populist."
In Europe too, the senator emphasized that the crises facing the European Union have nothing to do with Russia, and everything to do with the supranational union's internal problems. Pushkov pointed out that Moscow had no interest in weakening the EU, and that it classified Brussels as a strategic partner before the onset of the Ukrainian crisis. Furthermore, the senator said that Russia could not weaken the EU even it wanted to, and "does not set for itself such mythological goals."
"It's another matter that the EU has been weakened as a result of the policy chosen by its leaders, and which causes growing distrust among some of its own citizens, as we have seen in the French elections, the Dutch elections, and in Italy."
Unfortunately, the senator noted, the myth of devious Russian attempts to influence political processes in Western countries distorts many ordinary people's perception of Russia.
