Russia and China Veto against US Intervention in Syria
Carlos Latuff
2012
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On Tuesday, a new survey showed that, over the past few months, Russians felt more negative towards the USA, and they now view it more pessimistically than at any other point in more than four years. The state-run all-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) said in an online statement that 35 percent of respondents to the poll, conducted on 24-25 August, said that they felt “generally poor” or “very poor” about America, compared with 30 percent who felt that way in February. Overall, currently, Russians feel the most negative about America since September 2008, a month after Russia fought a short war against Georgia, whose president had close ties with the USA. The current overall sentiment, though, is more comparable to that of 2009, when the USA and Russia marked a “reset” in bilateral relations. Still, at present, 46 percent of Russians hold a positive view of America, adding that the figure comprised mostly young adults and residents of big cities. The people with the most negative perception of the USA were respondents from small towns or those over the age of 45.
Whilst attitudes toward the USA generally soured, perceptions of bilateral relations stayed relatively the same over the course of this year. The August poll questioned 1,600 Russian residents across 42 regions. Criticism of the USA increased in Russia following America’s push last month to carry out a military strike on Syria in response to allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons on civilians during its civil war. The US House of Representatives was days away from voting on whether to approve a strike on Syria… a measure that had already been green-lighted by the US Senate… when Russia backed a deal to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control. After the Syrian government formally agreed to the handover, US President Barack Obama asked Congress to delay its vote to allow time for the transfer to be complete. Officially, the transfer has a November deadline.
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A poll published this week shows that Americans’ distrust of Russia increased over the past year, and their confidence in Syria is almost nonexistent, which means few Americans expect the deal hammered out by American and Russian diplomats to get Damascus to give up its chemical weapons will amount to much. the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that the number of Americans expressing a fair amount to a great deal of trust in Russia fell from 33 percent in 2012 to 24 percent this year, whilst more than two-thirds of Americans… 68 percent… said that they have little if any trust in Russia. Last year, 60 percent of Americans told Pew pollsters they didn’t trust Russia. According to the poll, Americans have the same level of distrust for Russia as they have for Saudi Arabia, and they trust Russia slightly less than they do China. Syria wasn’t included in last year’s Pew poll, but Americans responded in the single digits when asked this year if they trusted the Middle Eastern country… just 8 percent said that they had a fair amount or great deal of trust for Syria, while 85 percent said that they had little confidence in Damascus.
However, when asked if they approved of President Obama’s decision to hold off on military strikes against Syria and seek a diplomatic solution instead, two-thirds of Americans… 67 percent… said yes and 23 percent said no. A majority of Americans (57 percent) were doubtful that Syria would actually give up control of its chemical weapons in response to the diplomatic efforts that culminated in a deal struck in Genève last week after tense negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Syria’s chemical arsenal. The deal sets a tough timeline for Syria to submit to the international community an inventory of its chemical weapons and details on where they’re stored, and calls for international inspectors to be on the ground in Syria by November, when the first phase of destruction of components used to make Syria’s chemical weapons is set to begin. The agreement stipulated that Syria must remove or destroy all chemical weapons components by the middle of next year, which also calls for tough penalties if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fails to comply with it. Obama said that the USA “remains prepared to act” militarily in the event that diplomacy should fail, but 37 percent of Americans told Pew that they’d back military intervention if the deal fell apart, and 49 percent said that they were against a possible American strike on Syria.
A separate poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News came up with similar results, with 48 percent of Americans saying that they’d be against American military intervention in Syria if the deal reached by Kerry and Lavrov were to fall apart, and 44 percent saying that the US Congress had to approve the use of military force against Syria if diplomacy fails. Meanwhile, only 4 percent of respondents to The Post–ABC poll said that they were “very confident” that Syria would give up all of its chemical weapons, while 68 percent were “not at all” or “not so” confident, and 26 percent were only somewhat confident that Damascus would comply with the deal. Both polls were conducted by telephone from 12-15 September, with Pew interviewing 1,002 American adults and the Washington Post-ABC poll surveying 1,004. The polls came out at the same time as a survey in Russia found that Russians feel more negative about the USA following Washington’s push last month to launch a military strike on Syria in response to allegations that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons on civilians during its civil war. The state-run all-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) said in an online statement that 35 percent of respondents to the Russian poll, conducted on 24-25 August, said that they felt “generally poor” or “very poor” about America, compared with 30 percent who felt that way in February.
17 September 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://www.en.rian.ru/world/20130917/183531363/Americans-Distrust-of-Russia-Grows-Poll.html
Voices from Russia 
Lavrov Sez West Understands That Assad Is the Lesser Evil… the Islamists are Far Worse than He Is
Tags: Assad, Bashar al-Assad, diplomacy, diplomatic relations, Islamism, Islamist, Lavrov, MID, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russian diplomacy, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, Sergey Lavrov, Syria, Syrian Civil War, UN, United Nations, Western world
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On Friday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Western politicians admit that allowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stay in power is a lesser evil than an Islamist régime is. Speaking to RIA-Novosti, Lavrov said, “Some of our Western colleagues started to voice the idea… not only in private conversations, but also publicly… that Assad’s rule is a lesser threat to Syria, taking into account the growing influence of jihadists and terrorists who capture vast territories, impose Sharia, exterminate minorities, and burn people alive only because their religion is different”. He said it’d be “incorrect” to say that the present civil war rendered Assad’s rule illegitimate, even though the UN estimated that it’s claimed more than 100,000 lives. Lavrov noted, “If he had no popular support, the war would’ve been over a long time ago, the rebels would’ve wiped out the current leadership, and no one knows what else would’ve happened there. According to estimates made by many experts, a significant number of people, up to 50 percent of Syrians, see Assad as the guarantor of their interests and their security”. Speaking about Assad’s future, Lavrov said that the Syrian President “has no plans to leave his country. He’ll stay with his people and do his duty. Indeed, he [Assad] said that he doesn’t rule out participating in next year’s planned presidential election. He’ll make his decision later, depending on whether he feels he has popular support”.
20 December 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/business/20131220/185775533/West-Understands-That-Assad-Is-Lesser-Evil–Lavrov.html