By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia does not want to be a superpower dominating the modern world or imposing its opinion on others, but hopes to develop its capabilities enough to protect its interests, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
“The Soviet Union wanted to be a leader in the global communist revolution. This was a big mistake. We would not like to repeat these mistakes in the future. We don’t want to command anyone, we don’t want to be a superpower that dominates and imposes solutions,” Putin was quoted as saying by the Time magazine.
The magazine named Wednesday the Russian president Person of the Year – 2007.
“But we want to have sufficient forces to defend ourselves, defend our interests and even build such good relations with our neighbours and main partners so that these partners become interested in the development and growth of the Russian Federation,” he said.
Putin said enhancing Russia’s role in the world is a difficult task that can be fulfilled only if Russian society consolidates and if Russia’s economic capabilities grow.
“This will be our task for the mid-term and long-term prospect. If we resolve it, a worthy place in the world is guaranteed for Russia,” the Russian president said.
Putin’s comments can be viewed as indirect reference to the US, whom Russia has been accusing of trying to establish a “unipolar” world.
The West has also been blaming Russia for striving to return to a Cold War model and impose their policies on neighbouring countries.
At times when the US wants to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe and Russia saying it would destroy the strategic balance of forces and threaten the country’s national interests, the international media have come out with an new term “cool war” to describe the current complicated relations between Russia and the West.
Speaking about Russia’s recent past, Putin said he would hardly have had the courage to transfer from the old Soviet system to a new democratic Russia, like Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev did.
“Both he (Yeltsin) and Gorbachev still did what I would have probably failed to do. They made a step toward the destruction of a system the Russian people had been unable to bear any longer. I am not sure I would have had the courage to do so,” he said.
“Gorbachev made the first step, and Yeltsin completed this transfer, I believe, a historical transfer, very important for Russia and the Russian people,” Putin said, adding that it was the two former leaders that gave Russia its freedom then.