“For heaven’s sake, the world is full of surprises, even very ugly ones. But I don’t think there is anyone’s will to lead to an armed confrontation. Putin is exerting with great ruthlessness the pressure that comes from showing his military capabilities,” more on the government of Kiev than on the western world “. Thus General Vincenzo Camporini, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Defense, who sees the risk of an armed conflict in Europe “very far”.
“I say this – he explains to Adnkronos – because Russian requests to the West are so unacceptable that they cannot be a basis for discussion, they constitute nothing more than a dialectical exercise but without any possibility: NATO cannot be asked to return to the state of 1997, among other things with internal inconsistencies, because if we were to return to the situation of military alliances of ’97 it would be very counterproductive for Russian politics, as it would have to withdraw from territories such as Abkhazia. So I think it is a question of a dialectical exercise conducted with great unscrupulousness but that will not go beyond “.
“The rulers of Moscow have always historically sought a security belt around their borders, which implies a sort of limited sovereignty for those who have the misfortune of bordering on Russia, which is objectively unacceptable”, Camporini begins. Russian veto on Ukraine’s entry into NATO states that “today there are no conditions for Ukraine to join NATO or the European Union (another part of the same problem): it is a fact. In recent days there was talk of a sort of moratorium, that is, NATO would keep the doors open for possible new members, postponing the real possibility to an indefinite future. Paradoxically, this proposal, which might seem common sense, finds obstacles not so much in Ukraine but in other countries like Finland and Sweden, which do not join the Atlantic Alliance but want to leave the door open even if at the moment they have no intention of doing so. there are spaces where certain undeclared, non-formalized policies can constitute a kind of good-natured agreement that decreases tensions “.
According to Camporini it is essential to aim for dialogue. “Since the Georgian question has arisen, then that of the Crimea, talks between the West and Russia have been interrupted”. “I am somewhat happy that due to this crisis that is mounting the dialogue has reopened, because only through this the situations are defused”, underlines the general. When tens of thousands of men and vehicles are deployed on the field, “even if with the most positive intentions, an accident can always happen. In the absence of a communication channel – he warns -, the risk is that the accident can be done a concrete step forward “.
(by Sibilla Bertollini)
Source-www.adnkronos.com