MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin's statetements about the Libyan crisis will be heard by the parties in the conflict, senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the Higher School of Economics Grigory Lukyanov told TASS.
Putin said at the traditional annual press conference on Thursday that it would be right for the parties in the Libyan conflict to find a solution that "would allow to stop military actions" and to "agree on who, how and with what powers would govern the country."
"Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's words will be heard, but there are a lot of factors inside Libya, where the military resolution prevails over political resolution, and there is no agreement in the process of political settlement," Lukyanov said.
He noted that the sides in the Libyan conflict are very attentive to what Putin says about Libya. Lukyanov added that call for negotiations represents a constant feature of Russia's policy toward Libya. "Russia has always maintained contacts with two main parties in the Libyan confrontation - the government in Tobruk [interim government of Abdullah al-Thani] and the government in Tripoli [internationally recognized Government of National Accord headed by Fayez al-Sarraj]," he said. The expert also reminded that at the Russia-Africa summit in October, Libya was represented by two delegations.
Lukyanov said that both governments in Libya pay attention to Russia's position and think that Russia is one of the few countries "that was not involved in the process of destroying the Libyan economu in 2011, and they trust Russia as a possible moderator in crisis settlement."
The expert also noted that the political space in Libya is currently filled with excessive and non-constructive external factors. "First of all, those are, of course, European countries which cannot agree on their position on Libya. Italy and France support different governments and different approaches to settlement," the expert said. "Qatar, Turkey and Italy support the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, while Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and France support the government in Tobruk and the Libyan National Army," he added.
In this situation, the aforementioned countries do not facilitate the resolution of the conflict, but instead exacerbate the crisis by forcing their own problems on the Libyans, Lukyanov said.
"In such conditions, Russia cannot make any commitments as it is unable to guarantee anything amidst this choas into which the process of Libyan political settlement turned into. Of course, Russia also proceeds from the understanding that the main responsibility for resolving the Libyan crisis lies with the Libyans themselves and their neighbors - those countries that suffer the most from those security threats that originate from Libya," the expert explained.
