Fyodor Lukyanov Quotes

I think most of the Washington foreign policy establishment exists in a fantasy world when it comes to Syria. They fundamentally don't understand that Russia and Iran, from the beginning, had much more at stake in Syria than the United States did. Russia and Iran were going to do everything possible in order to keep Bashar al-Assad in power.

You'd better believe that Putin sees that in Syria, Obama draws a red line and ignores the red line.

I'm no apologist for Russia or the Assad regime, but actually, this has been staring us in the face for a number of years now, and I think it's time to turn a page and accept reality. Our strategy - if that is the right word - failed miserably, and Russia's with Iran has been successful.

Russia isn't likely to have any more military success in Syria and Iraq than has the United States.

Ukraine is the instrument for Russia to test the West's 'red lines'

If past behavior is any indication, we're in a lot of trouble with Hillary Clinton in the White House, as well, who has promised to start a no-fly zone in Syria, which amounts to a declaration of war against Russia.

Wishful thinking won't make the Palestinians an Israeli peace partner, no matter how much President Barack Obama pressures Israel to make concessions; caustically mocking Putin's worldview won't make it any less real or mitigate the Russian threat.

Turkey wants to see Bashar al-Assad go and wants to kind of expand its sphere of influence into Turkey so its Ottoman glory or Ottoman past are once again project into the Syrian provinces. That's kind of what Turkey's vision is.

The moment it became in the interests of one or the other of the Great Powers to alter the status quo, none of these treaty structures ever stood in the way of such alteration.

Anybody who says it is in America's interest to not have better relations with Russia doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to geopolitics.

I believe some of the tensions the U.S. has had with Russia and that the Europeans have had with Russia... China is taking advantage of some of those dealings.

Russia is not a friendly character on the world stage.

Russia is not engaged in a fight against Daesh in Syria. On the contrary, they are actually targeting moderate opposition.

Why would Russia care about chemical weapons in Syria? They have no incentive to care.

I do not see it as desirable for South Korea to take the back seat and watch discussions between the U.S. and China.

Even when you just hear the word 'Syria,' it packs a lot of political connotations.

President Trump say that relations between the United States and Russia may be at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.

We have seen very clearly over these past years that there are quite a few people who are sceptical, or let us put it another way, are cautious about the development of Russian-American relations, but the underlying fundamental interests of the United States and Russia demand that our relations be normalised.

I never met Putin. This is not my best friend. But if the United States got along with Russia, wouldn't be so bad.

On issues like Ukraine, on issues like Syria, we've had very significant differences [with Russia].

We don't discuss this issue [conversations with Russia] as a government, but we discuss the repercussions, which is more important because sometimes repercussions could be more destroying than the strike itself.

Many Europeans are concerned that stronger sanctions are a slippery slope toward war unless the U.S. is at the table.

I think the attempt to draw a comparison between Iran and Syria is false, misleading and dangerous.

Senator Kerry was fooled by Bashar al-Assad.

The fall of the Syrian regime is in the interest of America and Israel.