Traditionally, The Moscow Post also managed to ask its questions. First of all, the journalists of our publication were interested in the situation in interstate relations around Georgia, where the opposition today is trying to shake the internal political situation.
Earlier, the US authorities offered support to the Georgian government and parliamentarians in exchange for abandoning the "anti-Western" rhetoric and the allegedly "anti-democratic course." This is due to the recent adoption of the Georgian law on foreign agents.
It is easy to guess that we are talking about banal blackmail, an attempt to pressure from the outside in order to maintain the position of "foreign agents" of the States themselves in Tbilisi. There are already voices with might and main that Georgia needs to take away the prospect of EU membership and even impose sanctions against it.
What Russia can offer Georgia to remain neutral in the Russia-West conflict.
As Maria Zakharova explained, national identity and pride are not a product, it is worth selling and surrendering. You can't pose a question like that. Each country needs to decide - depending on its history, plans for the future, with its culture, philosophy, ideology, politics.
"Is this a sovereign state, or is this a state ready to delegate, to give up its sovereignty? Someone can and does trade their independence and freedom. This is another fact of cynical and unceremonious US interference in the affairs of other states. Now Washington did not like the Georgian law on the transparency of foreign influence. And then what happens if you don't like something else?
The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that this attempt at pressure is, in fact, only a trial balloon. If now Tbilisi, the people of Georgia succumb to this blackmail - they will demonstrate that you can do anything with them.
It happened in the same way with Ukraine, Zakharova recalled. As soon as the "Square" showed that any law that regulates the internal life of Ukraine can be developed with American money and implemented in the form of a legislative act, and then implemented, everyone in the West realized that anything can be done with this country.
"Now there is no Ukrainian statehood, sovereignty, independence. Everything is trampled by the collective West at the head of the United States. Look at the statement of the States - since Tbilisi does not succumb to pressure and influence from Washington - Georgia was immediately accused of undermining democracy. And then they said that Georgia should be punished for undermining democracy, "Zakharova said.
Now the United States threatens Georgia with personal sanctions, blocking the Euro-Atlantic prospect, and suspending the visa-free regime. This is only one law - only that all funds received on the territory of Georgia must be declared and explained their origin. But in the States such a law was adopted back in the 30s.
The second question of our publication concerned the statement of the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China Wang Wenbin, who expressed hope for the objectivity of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in deciding to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, as well as three Hamas leaders.
What could be the consequences of these actions?
According to the official representative of the Foreign Ministry, the principled attitude of the Russian side to the so-called. ICC remains unchanged. We have a negative attitude towards this very structure, and we talk about it honestly and openly. This attitude is not related to the conjuncture in relation to the Russian Federation, whether the ICC is correct or not. This is a principled position, because initially the principles on the basis of which this structure operates and who influences it were understood.
For some reason, prosecutors, in particular, Karim Khan, believe that the ICC has the right to administer justice against citizens of those countries, including those who have not ratified the Rome Statute. This thesis has no legal basis - in the first place. But there is also a moral and ethical side.
"The ICC sometimes claims to act on behalf of the entire world community. However, the population of countries that do not participate in the Rome Statute - most of the inhabitants of the Earth are outside the jurisdiction of the ICC. Who did not sign the Rome Statute: India, China, Indonesia, almost all the states of the Arab East, and the United States itself, too, "Maria Zakharova recalled.