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Verslag door Jan Techau van Carnegie Europe vanop de Security Conference in Munchen gisteren 13/2 :

http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=62764

Wow, perfect geschreven zonder franjes en zo hard de waarheid .
Dit is er eentje om in te lijsten :

The other big issue in Munich, although not on the agenda in its own right, is Russia. Both Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave long speeches at the podium, but none of what they had to say was particularly new or surprising. The Russian mix of idiosyncratic worldview, twisting of reality, valuable analysis, and shameless propaganda is well-known by now to audiences around the world.

Medvedev peppered his act with careful infusions of rhetorical lament and regret about all the missed chances for better cooperation, but he also made clear that all of the mistakes had been made by others, and none by Russia. Lavrov, true to his usual role, was the emotionless robot, reinforcing Medvedev’s message with admirable straight-facedness. They survived a short magic moment in which they were openly confronted by the audience on some of the brutal contradictions in their words and policies, and then they were gone. They left the stage to a visibly emotional and enervated Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine, who was forced to defend his record in office and had none of the sovereign coolness of his Russian counterparts.

Everyone capable of taking a step back and looking beyond the political chess game being performed could also see something else play: the slow burning Russian tragedy of the early twenty-first century. A great power mired in a self-destructive downward spiral of historical complexes, hurt pride, a culture of victimhood, postimperial maladjustment, a false sense of threat, and lies that beget lies. One dares not think about what this great power could achieve if it could bring its enormous talent, grit, and ingenuity to produce something useful.