I think that, of course, we all had big illusions. At the current stage of development there is a growing awareness that there is no single, as you say, liberal-democratic model. It does not exist even in countries that claim to its authorship. And the events that are happening in the euro zone, and the crisis show that it is very difficult to have sustainable growth without state control and interference. I believe that the blame for the financial crisis lies mainly on the irresponsibility of politicians, who, in fact, got into the pocket for future generations, and probably did not imagine, or may be, imagined what effect this may have.
Probably, this is the idealism. Do you remember the enthusiasm of 1999 about Euro?
I think if this was the idealism, it could be attributed not to those who makes the final decision but to those who saw a possibility of strengthening the geopolitical influence. In terms of historical perspective, nothing has changed much in world politics over the past 100 years except for the forms of provision of national or global interests. Simply, the forms are different now, while methods of persuasion are almost the same. In the case this does not work, they resort to pressure. If this also does not work, they take stiffer actions. Nothing has changed, except the exterior. The countries who regained independence in the 1990s did not understand what is really happening for some time. I think today most of those who had some illusions about common welfare, accession to some structures, feel deep disappointment. Now and in the past there were certain confrontations about the spheres of influence. I think some circles take it too primitively: sphere of influence is where you are honored. Sphere of influence is where you feel at ease, see respect and support.
So why the staff of the Russian radar in Gabala is leaving Azerbaijan?
is that the rental fee for the Gabala radar was making just $7m for a territory of nearly 300 hectares in one of the most picturesque places of Azerbaijan which is the second tourism center after Baku. And if those who live far from the sea, have a rest on the seaside, we who live near the Caspian Sea, have a rest in the mountains. Therefore, our wish was to bring the rental fee into compliance with the realities. First, these would have been a compensation for the past ten years because over the past ten years Azerbaijan has never revised the price, though everyone realized, I think in Russia too that the price is, softly speaking, symbolical. The intention to raise the rental fee was also substantiated by the fact of huge progress in military and technical cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia over the past five-six years; these purchases counted billions of dollars. We buy Russian hardware for the world price.
Certainly, after all, you are not the CSTO member-state.
Certainly. We consider that if we buy it for the world price, if we do all other calculations by the world price, the rental fee must also correspond or be closer to it. Gabala radar is of no importance for Azerbaijan, the information that it gets is not necessary to us-we have no means to resist the information that Gabala resists. Therefore, this must be settled purely on the basis of friendly relations and commercial ones. We offered the Russian side to continue cooperation for five or ten years by new prices but it was not accepted. Russia now has a more upgraded detection station than Gabala radar which is simply outdated both physically and morally. In general, this is the essence of the matter. And except for media, this issue has never caused any concerns in bilateral ties.
There were media reports which said Americans encouraged you to this decision.
This is absolutely untrue. No one can force us to do anything. The story of the recent development of the initiatives attempted by those you are now speaking of has shown that we do not obey anyone. Even so more, it is absolutely impossible to make us act against our strategic partner.
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