MOSCOW. June 26 (Interfax) - The role of Yevgeny Primakov in history is that he was the person who began the process of resuming independent foreign policies in Russia, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the State Duma committee on international affairs, said.
"In my view, his historical role was that Primakov began resuming independent foreign policies in Russia, policies based primarily on our national interests, not on the national interests of our American counterparts," Pushkov told reporters in regard to Primakov's death on Friday.
Pushkov said Primakov was a major figure, a person who influenced the development of foreign policy under the Soviets, and was among the authors of Russia's foreign policy in the 1990s.