Putin: Refugee Crisis Is the Result of “Wrong Foreign Policy of Our Partners”

“I think that this crisis was absolutely predictable. If you remember we in Russia, myself in particular, have said often some years ago, that Europe would face problems on a large scale, had our so-called western partners insisted with the wrong foreign policy, as I have always called it, especially in the regions of the Muslim world, in the Middle East, in North Africa; a policy which they indeed are still carrying out.

What is this policy? Imposing their standard without taking into account history, religion, culture – that is the national characteristics of such regions. This is, in the first place, the policy carried out by our American partners; Europe lets itself be blindly towed in respect of the so-called allied obligations, and now pays the highest costs. I am surprised to see how some American media criticize Europe for its too hard line, as they say, towards refugees. However, it is not the United States that is hit by such migration flows; it is Europe that, after blindly following orders coming from America, is now the one most hit by the crisis. “

I am speaking neither to praise our foresight, nor to expose the shortsightedness of our partners or to offend anyone; we must understand what should be done.

“What should be done? The answer is very simple: we must all together, and I want to stress that, fight against terrorism and extremism of all sorts. In advance, in those countries which are in trouble, after having solved this problem – without that, no progress is possible, how can we make progress in regions controlled by the Islamic State? It is impossible, people are fleeing from those regions. They kill hundreds of thousands, blow monuments up, burn people alive or drown them, they behead people etc. How can you live there? Of course, people are fleeing. 

“Therefore we must:

1. Fight effectively terrorism and extremism together;

2. We must rebuild the economy and the social sphere in those countries. Only in this way, showing respect for the history, tradition and religion of those peoples and countries, we will be able to rebuild their statehood and supply political and economic aid on a large scale.

If we join our efforts in all those sectors, we will have positive results. If we move separately and keep discussing among ourselves on some quasi-democratic principles and procedures on determined territories, this will lead us to a greater situation of stall[ing].”