Mankind can reduce risks of further global confrontation - Naryshkin
MOSCOW. July 31 (Interfax) - State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin hopes humankind has not forgotten the lessons of the First World War, 100 years later and that this memory will help avoid another global confrontation.
"Today we continue to believe in humankind as our predecessors did 100 years ago. Unlike them, we have not only a longer period of world (history) at our disposal but also much greater experience in analyzed mistakes. This gives a hope that another global confrontation will be avoided," Naryshkin said at the opening of an international forum on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.
The year 1914 was fatal for Europe, having sent a whole era, with its optimism and faith in progress, its hopes and expectations, into nonexistence, the State Duma speaker said.
In his view, global threats have since altered but many deep-running factors of standoff, primarily, non-openness to dialogue, still remain.
"Consider the neofascist trends and horrible manifestations mixed up with Nazism. Otherwise, how else can one explain the Odessa tragedy on May 2 this year when dozens of people were burned alive," he said.
Nor should it be forgotten that quite a few early-20th century politicians were not just unopposed to the war, but quite willing to whisk their fellow citizens onto battlefields.
"But since then a great deal has become a fact of history, while politicians and artists, who were singing praise to future battles, even back then had no idea what a world war was. Meanwhile, today we have a chance of reducing the risks of new global waves of violence coming," the State Duma speaker said.
Naryshkin chairs the national organizing committee in charge of the events on the occasion of the centenary of the First World War.
