MINSK. June 21 (Interfax) - The policy conducted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with respect to Minsk is totally in line with the traditions of Western diplomacy, said Nikolai Zlobin, Director of Russian and Asian Programs at the U.S. Global Security Institute.
"Putin is one of the first post-Soviet leaders who assumed a cynic position, in a good sense of this word, whereby each country has its own national interests," said Zlobin, who arrived in Minsk to participate in the international summer school for journalists.
"And in this respect the attitude [of the Russian leaders] towards Belarus is this: yes, we will be guided by Russia's interests and Belarus by its own ones. But it should not expect Russia to be guided by Belarusian interests. And we do not expect Belarus to be guided by Russian interests," said the political analyst, summing up the Russian policy.
Russia has become stronger and started using methods similar to the U.S. political style, he said. The Russian leaders' line of reasoning is this: "Today Russia is stronger. And we were taught it by the Americans. We were taught political competition, we are politically competing with Belarus. We have leverage and we will use it," Zlobin said.
"He [Putin] is certainly the West's apprentice. He is a volunteer in a good sense of this word. But on the other hand, this is his way of defending Russian interests," Zlobin said.
Putin's foreign policy is met with understanding in the U.S. establishment, he said.
"There is an interesting phenomenon in the U.S. political culture: they do not like when their president is praised in other countries. They believe that if the U.S. president is praised abroad, he is not being very tough in defending his national interests. And in that sense Americans will see Putin defending Russian interests as a normal thing. Americans will not say anything bad about it," Zlobin said.
In Belarusian-Russian economic disputes, Putin "is directed not by the baton of the U.S., but rather books that were written there [in the U.S.]," he said.