0lha s question about instability in former post soviet countries, we have seen russia been a real destabilising force in georgia for instance, where it backed the breakaway separatists there in south 0ssetia, abkhazia, the same in moldova, with transnistria, where a couple of thousand russian troops are based there. so how far do you think 0lha s question is relevant in terms of russia being a destabilising force? well there s.putin wants to stabilise the region in his own interest. after the kazakhstan intervention, he had a summit meeting with all the relevant states around him and made a speech, and said i need to go in in order to prevent maidans, which is of course the democratic revolutions, or revolution of dignity in ukraine. he does not want that sort of development. kazakhstan may not have been that, but he clearly presented it as way of having the autocratic
i mean, for the last year, and if you will listen to him, you see that this is the president having no vision. he does not produce any vision of how he sees russian, how he sees the development of global policies. he keeps on recollecting the historical events he wants to restore as a new form. so, now he s bringing us back to the post second world war period and trying to rearrange the european security and to undermine everything we face. so he never produces vision, he only brings us back to the historical elements he loved and he enjoyed. all right, so he is incapable of co operating with you on a liberal democratic basis. kristina kvien, from america s point of view, do you want to see russia cooperate with the ukraine on a democratic basis? absolutely. i think it would be great if russia would cooperate with ukraine on a democratic basis. i think the problem i agree with sergey and 0lha completely
from our audience here. the deputy prime minister of ukraine is 0lha stefanishyna. she s been very much the international face of the ukrainian government during this current crisis. kristina kvien is the charge d affaires, that s the acting ambassador for washington, here in kyiv. carl bildt is a former swedish prime minister and one of europe s leading statesmen, and professor sergey radchenko is a russian born political scientist based in europe. that s our panel. welcome to you all. give them a round of applause. applause and remember, you too can join the conversation it s #bbcglobalquestions. now, we re going to take a couple of questions to kick off with. first, from 0lha. your question please. is the build up of russian troops on the ukrainian . borders, in your opinion, an attempt to get. the world s attention or is there a real danger behind it? and a similar sort of question? yes, indeed.
stability of the near abroad of russia guaranteed my military means. his argument is that it is either that or chaos. true, that is what he said. but he says there are islamists, extremists, to use the word, the terrorists as they say. that is what he said, and that is what he believes. and i think that is fundamentally wrong. because if you build up these autocratic states, they collapse sooner or later. autocracy is not stable. democracy may be messy, but it is stable. the only way you can bring long term stability to this part is to have open liberals. crosstalk. carl, that leads into our next question very well, so hold your thoughts there, because we are going to go to tamuz. my question, so what will happen after the change or fall of the other autocratic regimes in post soviet countries? let s go to you then, 0lha. i think it is very simple, and very much resonating
i think the problem i agree with sergey and 0lha completely that russia is not a liberal democracy and ukraine is. ukraine is getting closer and closer to the liberal democratic ideal of western europe, and russia does not like it so russia is trying to pull it back into its model which is not a liberal democracy. but if russia did engage with ukraine on a liberal democratic basis, what role would that leave for the united states? they would be vying with you for leadership of the free world, wouldn t they? we are perfectly happy to have russia deal with ukraine in a liberal democratic basis. we would welcome it. carl bildt? the tragic thing at the moment is that putin is dealing far more with the past of russia than with the future of russia. as sergey said, he is a 19th century thinker and he wants to recreate sort of a great russian dominate