| At the end of last week, the Russian President stunned the world with his admission that even before the war in Iraq, Moscow received information that “Saddam’s regime was preparing terrorist attacks” on US territory. This contradicts all previous Russian statements that Hussein had nothing to do with international terrorism. The columnist of the Vremya Novostei newspaper Elena SUPONINA talks about this with the famous Arab political scientist, head of the representative office of the Qatari television company Al-Jazeera in Russia, Akram KHUZAM.
— How do you assess Putin’s statement?
- If the Iraqis gave information to the Russian intelligence services, then I regard this as betrayal. Now any leader going to Russia will be careful, because Putin can pass on any information to Washington. And if the Russian special services themselves obtained such information, then Putin should have announced this even then, before the war. Now it looks like an unmanly step taken late.
- But who is Putin betraying? Is Saddam's regime no longer there?
“It is clear from Putin’s words that the information was transmitted when Hussein’s regime still existed. And all of Putin's previous statements about Saddam's government contradict his current statement.
— Moscow emphasizes that Hussein was never its ally.
- They are lying. Saddam Hussein was an ally of the USSR and then of Russia. They received a lot of money from Saddam, not only the authorities, but also others, Zhirinovsky and Zyuganov. Therefore, I believe that they are obliged to Hussein, despite my negative attitude towards any dictator.
- Why did Putin come up with this right now?
-- The Americans are putting pressure on Putin about the YUKOS case, freedom of speech and the state of the media. Therefore, Mr. Putin decided to make a gift to George Bush with his statement, which he really needed for the election campaign. After all, the majority of Americans are against the war with Iraq, against the American policy of lies. Interviewed by Elena SUPONINA
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