Russia’s top diplomat outlined Thursday a more aggressive course to stop violence in Syria, calling for dialogue with rebels to avoid civil war and deployment of at least 100 unarmed U.N. observers by next week.
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said “unorthodox methods” are necessary to accelerate placement of observers in Syria’s embattled cities — perhaps using neighboring Jordan as a staging ground.
But military interventions aimed at toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime or creating “safe zones” for civilians “are not in the cards,” Churkin said in Denver during an interview.
“Russia is leading the efforts of the international community,” Churkin said. “We’re trying to play very active international role. We believe we are doomed to play an active international role.”
Churkin is here on a five-day swing that includes speeches at the University of Colorado and the University of Denver and stops in Colorado Springs.
On Thursday, he met for about 20 minutes with Gov. John Hickenlooper, a back-and-forth discussion ranging from U.N. Security Council politics to climate change and Russia’s interests in the Arctic. Russia’s Honorary Consulate General, one of 33 foreign government offices in Denver, is coordinating activities.
Russia’s push through the U.N. Security Council for dialogue in Syria, rather than sanctions or regime change, has prevented U.S. and European members from intervening militarily, the way they did last year in Libya.
However, scores more Syrian civilians were killed this week in a government crackdown on rebels and activists. Syrian forces were refusing U.N. calls to withdraw heavy weapons from cities. U.N. authorities say Syrian security forces have killed more than 9,000 people.
Beyond the Security Council, Russian diplomats are engaging Syrian factions in an effort to broker a solution.
“How do you turn your political preferences, ambitions, plans into action if you don’t do into a dialogue? The other way is to fight, which would generate more bloodshed,” Churkin said. “The worst thing to protect civilians is to start a civil war.”
The merits of the Security Council approach last year to atrocities in Libya — to which Russia assented — increasingly are questioned. Churkin said the “responsibility to protect” principle for violating national sovereignty to save civilians — championed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon — was abused in the toppling of Moammar Khadafy.
U.S. and European intervenors “forgot about protecting civilians. They started talking about regime change. What we saw was a conflict that lasted more than six months, which resulted in deaths of 30,000 to 50,000 people. The country is very close to disintegration. Weapons are flowing out of Libya all over the place.”
Russia’s newly assertive diplomacy reflects President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to restore Russia’s prestige on the world stage after the collapse of communism around 1991. Trying to broker a solution short of regime change in Syria has engendered “a share of skepticism” in U.S. and other diplomatic circles, Churkin said.
But Russian leadership will be useful for the international community in situations such as the standoff with Iran over suspected nuclear weapons programs — with Russia able to restrain nations that otherwise may tend toward extremes, he said.
And U.S. efforts to “reset” relations with Russia are largely a success, though differences remain, he said. “It would be naive” to think the sort of spying that surfaced last year does not continue, “but I can tell you, the Cold War is not coming back.”
U.S. officials pushing greater democracy in Russia “need to tread very carefully. You need to remember different countries have their own traditions. … We believe evolution is better than revolution.”
Obama administration officials have accepted “that the concept of a unipolar world did not work,” in contrast to Bush administration predecessors, Churkin said. “Now we are helping each other, and I hope we are sincere in that.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, bfinley@denverpost.com or
