Where does Russia’s ‘sphere of influence’ end?
23.09.08 – Vessela Tcherneva “In Russia, the optimists learn English; the pessimists learn Chinese and the realists learn to operate a Kalashnikov.” This joke would have been funny had it not come from Dmitri Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to NATO, in a recent interview to a Bulgarian newspaper. Weeks after Russia’s war with Georgia and days after the announcement of a new ‘spheres of influence’ policy by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Rogozin – a former leader of the nationalist party Rodina (Motherland) and a good friend of indicted Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic – introduced Bulgarian readers to Russia’s new foreign policy doctrine. Rogozin’s interview seemed to carry a clear message to the Bulgarian public: the country belongs to Russia’s sphere of influence, and any other club membership – be it NATO or the EU – has been a historical mistake, which would later need to be corrected. “Bulgaria has abandoned us many times but took the right decision afterwards, when victory has
