Russia, U.S. must intensify dialogue without using language of sanctions - Stepashin
MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) - Russia's ex-prime minister Sergei Stepashin said that Russia and the United States should talk more and learn to hear each other's arguments.
"What matters most is that [Russia and the U.S.] must hear each other and talk with each other more actively without hesitating to ask difficult questions," Stepashin said in a TV link with the National Press Club in Washington at Interfax's main office on Tuesday.
He said, "information should not be taken from ideology-influenced sources, including mass media."
"Let us talk. Indeed, U.S. leaders once succeeded in talking with Stalin, and did that effectively. Roosevelt demonstrated sufficient wisdom then. The two countries had a common enemy, a common plight and a common problem," Stepashin said.
He made mention of the Yugoslav crisis, "when the Russian and U.S. leaders managed to hear and understand each other."
"Although Russia could not accept NATO's air strike against a Central European country - then and now - we did hear each other and managed to check further escalation of military developments. And we managed to do without sanctions. Generally speaking, sanctions are a kind of a mediaeval tradition. I don't understand why it has been dug out today," Stepashin said.
He said the U.S. and Russia have apparent common ground.
"It includes environmental protection, and the search for common interests in the Middle East. It is obvious that without Russia and the United States it is very difficult to talk about serious peace initiatives for the Middle East," he said.
One should also take into account that the problems facing Europe have to do, in the first place, with Russia, Germany and other countries.
"So, let us try to come to terms with our partners in Western Europe on the most acute and complicated issues on our own. I was extremely perplexed by the U.S. president's speech in West Point. No one, including Harry Truman, has ever claimed that the United States will do today what it finds best in the world, including from the point of view of the use of military force. I do not accept such an ideology. I hope, it will not be accepted by our U.S. partners and colleagues, either," Stepashin s aid.
