Russia has not seen predictability on US’ part in recent years, says Putin

Putin

NEW YORK, June 14. /TASS/: Predictability and stability are the most important value in international affairs, though Russia has not seen that on the part of the US in recent years, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with NBC.

"He [US President Joe Biden - TASS] says one thing. I say another thing," he said when commenting on the statement that Biden believes Russia is to blame for global instability. "But maybe at some point in certain ways our rhetoric varies and is different. But if you ask my opinion now, I am telling you what it is. The most important value in international affairs is predictability and stability," Putin said.

"And I believe that on the part of our US partners, this is something that we haven't seen in recent years," he noted.

"What kind of stability and predictability could there be if we remember the 2011 events in Libya where the country was essentially taken apart, broken down? What kind of stability and predictability was there? There has been talk of a continued presence of troops in Afghanistan. And then all of a sudden, boom!, the troops are being withdrawn from Afghanistan. Is this predictability and stability again? Now the Middle East events. Is this predictability and stability, what all of this will lead to? Or in Syria? What is stable and predictable about this?" Russian President said. "I've asked my US counterparts, "You want [Syrian President Bashar] Assad to leave? Who will replace him? What will happen when he's replaced with somebody?" The answer is odd. The answer is, "I don't know." Well, if you don't know what will happen next, why change what there is? It could be a second Libya or another Afghanistan. Do we want this? No," he said.

"Let us sit down together, talk, look for compromise solutions that are acceptable for all the parties. That is how stability is achieved. It cannot be achieved by imposing one particular point of view, the "correct" point of view, whereby all the other ones are incorrect. That's not how stability is achieved," Putin stressed.

The US authorities have repeatedly said that they would like to see more predictable and stable relations with Russia.