Sergei Lavrov Quotes
Either we agree that any terrorism is unacceptable, or we will be playing a double-standard game where some son of a bitch is okay because he is our son of a bitch.
Lavrov, familiar with American political history, was criticizing our policy of supporting evil and immoral regimes if they would be supportive of us. This policy with the "son of a bitch" description was used by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. See {637777}.
Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, Interview, The Washington Post, September 29, 2013
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Some Americans and Europeans have urged Putin to solve the Chechen problem politically---to sit down and negotiate with the leaders. The Chechen terrorists have been particularly brutal killing hundreds of children at a time. Putin felt that it was easy for Americans and Europeans to tell him to negotiation with terrorist murders while they would never do so with the terrorists that had killed their people in their countries. Chechen is a province of Russia where fundamentalist Islamic terrorists mounted an armed, violent, terrorist insurrection and then spread their terrorism to other parts of Russia. Brussels was the political capital of Europe.
The Cheka, forerunner of the KGB, was executing large numbers of dissidents. One was Nikolai Gumilev 1886-1921, one of Russia's great poets. One of the Cheka agents, distressed at the prospect of killing such a great Russian artist suggested that an exception be made. The poet was then shot. Secret Police precursor to the KGB
In the internecine warfare in the Iraq War many of the Iraqis who worked with and for the United States during the war, were threatened and many killed. Unlike the Ford Administration in the Vietnam War, which had resettled almost 200,000 Asians who had worked with America and were in danger of retaliation, the George W. Bush Administration would not allow the people who were loyal to United States forces in the war to immigrate to the U. S.
Her reference was to the fact that when the Russians invaded Afghanistan in the Cold War, the United States decided to arm and train Islamic fighters to oust the Russians. They did, but then the Mujahideen, as the fighters were called, formed the backbone of Al Qaeda and the Taliban who turned on us.
While the point he is making has validity, his examples are reversed. In the two instances he cited, both were friends who then became enemies and terrorists, not the reverse as he claimed. There are examples of the other way around. For Americans, the best example is the Civil War where there were many examples of Southern terrorism, where the terrorists became leading citizens of the Union. America has a strong friendship with Ireland, which supported terrorism for centuries. In some cases, the terrorists change and reform; in others, our standards change and reform.
Islamic Religious Fundamentalist Terrorists in Algeria had kidnapped over 100 Western Hostages including some Americans. One of the terrorist’s “demands” was for the release of convicted murderers and terrorists in the United States. The official policy which she stated was not totally accurate. On several occasions, U. S. Officials or third parties representing them had “unofficially” negotiated with terrorists. In many cases this was a tactic to buy time and military action followed and in other cases unofficial ransoms were actually paid. The United States has had to contend with this problem with Islamic Terrorists and Pirates since the Thomas Jefferson Presidency when he argued against John Adams who wanted to pay the tribute while Jefferson preferred military action.
There are some authorities who believe that this quotation was apocryphal as it is not in any of Roosevelt’s official papers. However, many of his remarks were not. This was before the digital age were almost everything a President says is recorded. Most authorities believe it to be an actual quotation, and we have included it with the caution that some take a contrary view. It certainly was what FDR thought about Somoza, and the pragmatism of a close alliance with a useful dictator was typical of Roosevelt who presided over our WWII alliance with Joseph Stalin whose soldiers and civilians bore the great brunt of the German Nazi fighting.
Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov is a Russian diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. As a member of the United Russia party, he was previously the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, serving in the role from 1994 to 2004.
