Arab power crisis will echo in Russia - Lavrov
Interfax | March 2, 2011 | JRL 2011-39-38 | JRL Home
MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Destabilization in the Middle East and North Africa could lead to aggravation in Central Asia and in Russia's North Caucasus, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"The more the Middle East gets unstable, the higher is the risk of people with malicious purposes causing us trouble," he said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Wednesday.
Lavrov also said that the Middle Eastern region has always been a source of problems for Russian security.
"Even during the times of stability in the Middle and Near East we felt an infiltration of negativity from the region through Afghanistan, Central Asia to the Russian Federation," Lavrov said.
"This wave has never stopped, it would simply turn into a trickle sometimes, when the regimes were able to take isolated measures amid relative stability. But when the structure responsible for the functioning of the state is breaking apart, this wave can expand the stream," the foreign minister said.
Besides, the situation in Russia will be aggravated in the wake of the events in the Middle East regardless of who comes to power in these countries, he said.
"Even no matter who comes to power in these countries, even if they will not be radical Islamists, still, the situation will be destabilized, creating some sort of a 'Brownian motion,' which people who wish to continue their malicious cause will find easier to operate in," he said.
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