‘We’ll continue to look for solutions in Syria’ – Russian president

During his visit to Moscow, France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called on Russia to back the EU sanctions against Syria. Russia has more than once expressed its disagreement to the sanctions, claiming this would influence the crisis in Syria to develop like Libya’s.

“We are not entirely satisfied with the way Resolution 1973 was implemented. This is water under the bridge now, since the situation in Libya has changed fundamentally,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.

“Still, we believe that the mandate granted under Resolution 1973 on Libya was exceeded. We would not want to see the same thing happen in Syria.”

Medvedev acknowledged that the problems in Syria have led to disproportionate use of force and an ever-increasing number of casualties.

“We, too, think this is unacceptable. I pointed it out in my personal conversations with President Bashar Assad. Just the other day, I sent a deputy foreign minister to him to reiterate our position on the issue,” Medvedev said. “However, I believe the resolutions we would approve to send a strong message to the Syrian regime should in fact be addressed to both sides.”

He said that “the anti-government protesters in Syria are not followers of some refined European models of democracy. There are different groups within the opposition. Some of them are, to put it straight, extremists, and some might even be called terrorists.”

He reiterated that the situation is not simple, and that one has to take into account the balance of different forces and interests.

“Russia may support certain moves, but only if they don’t boil down to the one-sided condemnation of the government and President Assad. We should send a strong message calling on all the conflicting parties to come to the negotiation table, start the talks and stop the bloodshed.”

The Russian president added that this would also be in Russia’s interests as the two countries have always been friend, enjoying close economic and political ties.

“That’s why we’ll continue to look for solutions to the situation in Syria.”