Western countries use mass media and nongovernmental organizations under their control to lead an anti-Russian information campaign in Central Asia, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Galuzin said on Tuesday at the 3rd Central Asian conference of the Valdai Discussion Club.
"The information campaign pursued in Central Asia with the help of controllable media and NGOs is also intended to do this (deter Russia - TASS) to reject Russia and erase its positive image from the public consciousness by discrediting our common history through attempts to stir up nationalist sentiments," he said.
Galuzin pointed out that the Central Asian region is viewed by Western countries exclusively as a tool of "the policy to contain Russia and China, to control this crossroads of trade from Asia to Europe and back."
The deputy foreign minister emphasized that Russia uses a completely different approach toward Central Asia. "For us, this is a neighboring region with which we share a common history, a multi-level and wide-ranging system of mutually beneficial and equal relations based on allyship, strategic partnership and integration," Galuzin added.
"We cannot forget the uniting role of the Russian language as a means of interethnic communication, including among the peoples inhabiting Central Asia," the high-ranking diplomat concluded.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Florstein/Creative Commons 4.0
Based on materials from TASS