Russian diplomat: US Summit for Democracy is chimera meant to show West’s common agenda
The Summit for Democracy to be called by the United States in December, is meant to demonstrate that the collective West allegedly has a consolidating agenda, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday, according to TASS.
"This Summit for Democracy is yet another chimerical device meant to demonstrate that the collective West has a kind of constructive, consolidating agenda. But a consolidating agenda should include concrete practical measures but not mere theoretical speculations ending up in yet another scandal," she said in an interview with the Voskresny Vecher (Sunday Evening) program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
According to the Russian diplomat, despite the domestic contradictions in the United States, it still "claims leadership" in the world, so Washington needs to do something to form "another coalition." But, in her words, "even the US and NATO" understand that it would not be right to try to form another military coalition after the developments in Afghanistan. "But is would be quite good to create something global that would give an impression of the Western world’s consolidation," she said. "And the so-called summit in support of democracy was invented. What is it? Its initiators believe that the world should be divided according to one more principle: into democratic and non-democratic countries."
She recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered a concept of healthy conservatism, which is actually destined to "claim real leadership in the world." "Healthy conservatism in no way means refusal from moving forward. It means progressive movement on the basis of the positive and efficient experience humankind has," she explained.
The White House announced on August 11 that President Joe Biden planned to call the Summit for Democracy in December 2021 to focus on three major topics: protection against authoritarianism, combating corruption, and respect to human rights.