4.A very important and informative interview with H.E Andrey Viktorovich Fedorov, Consul General of Russian Federation, Karachi
Interviewed by Dr. Syed Mehboob
Senior Research Editor, The News Lark, Karachi
About Consul General of Russian Federation in Karachi His Excellency Andrey Viktorovich Fedorov
His Excellency Andrey Viktorovich Fedorov is a dynamic, committed and far sighted diplomat, who has a deep sense and acumen about diplomatic services and is a highly responsible person. He has a keen desire to promote Pakistan Russia relations, enhance bilateral ties and bring business, intellectual and political communities of both the countries closer to pave the way for further cementing ties between the two countries. His all staff are very friendly, cooperative and are full of patriotic spirit.
Mr. Andrey Viktorovich Fedorov was born in 1972. He took keen interest in his country’s as well as international affairs since his youth. He held various positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and abroad since 1998. He has a vast experience of twenty-five years in serving for the cause of his beloved country. His brief career track record has been given below: -
1992–1998 – Graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) (English, Bulgarian languages);
1998-2012 – Held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
2002–2004 – Graduated from Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation;
2012–2013 – Counsellor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation;
2013–2018 – Senior Consul (DCM) of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Karachi;
2018–2022 – Senior Counsellor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in India.
Since April 2022 he is serving at Consulate General of Russian Federation in Karachi, as Consul General.
The News Lark has an honor to be the first one among the media which started providing positive and authentic information about Russia when there was a lot of misinformation and fake news about it. Instead of relying on western media, The News lark and its Senior Research Editor Dr. Syed Mehboob did thorough research and in-depth analysis about Russian economy, education, science and technological advancement and its powerful influence and vital role in global politics. He is fully supported by Mr. Jawed Malik, Editor in Chief ,The News Lark, Karachi as well as the consulate general of Russian Federation and its staff.
Dr. Syed Mehboob held a detailed discussion with His Excellency Andrey Viktorovich Fedorov at Consulate General of Russian Federation in Karachi. He briefed The News Lark about latest development ont Pakistan and Russian relations and other affairs. Following is the excerpt of his interview.
Q1: His Excellency there is a lot of development in Pakistan Russia Relations for the last few months. How do you see these relations and what future do you see of Pakistan Russia Relations?
Andrey V. Fedorov (AVF): There has been indeed a lot of development and positive move towards relations between Pakistan and Russia this year so far. Let me just mention a few of them: The Russia Pakistan Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation that was held in Islamabad on January 18-20, meeting between Pakistani Foreign Minister Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari with his Russian Counterpart Sergey Lavrov on January 30, 2023 in Moscow, launch of a direct shipping line from St. Petersburg to Karachi and the arrival of the first batch of Russian crude oil to Karachi port. We should not forget the delegation level talks between the Chairman Senate of Pakistan Mr. Sadiq Sanjrani and Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko on June 6-7, 2023 in Moscow where both sides emphasized the importance of parliamentary exchanges to further enhance bilateral relations between our countries. To sum up, huge progress has been achieved in our cooperation just in the first half of the year. However, I do not think that we are going to slow down the pace. I believe we may see more interesting development in coming months and future of our relations will be very bright as both side’s leadership have keen desire to take these relations towards a new height.
:Q2: Russian policy towards Islamophobia and recent burning of Quran in Sweden which provoked worldwide protests. Your president strongly condemned this inhumane incident. What prospects do you see in future Russian relations with Muslim world?
(AVF): You are directly on the point that it was an inhumane incident, which had nothing to do with freedom of expression. It was a deliberate attempt to hurt most sacred religious feelings, instigate inter-religious hate and spur violence. This stuff, whether intentionally or not, is being constantly practiced by the western societies, governments and media. They try to lecture the whole world on morality and values while being blatant xenophobia themselves. As an example, we have BBC, who constantly produce fake material about Russia, but according to some research groups have an abysmal track record regarding anti-Islamic narratives in their publications. It can be stated that their levels of hypocrisy surprise nobody.
Russian President Vladimir Putin strongly condemned this irresponsible act. Furthermore, condemnation resolution also passed in our parliament, we support the position of Pakistan and many other Muslim countries on that matter. Russia has always been working on maintaining constructive relations with friendly Muslim countries and we respect their religious customs and traditions. Considering this, I believe our cooperation with Islamic World will stay mutually beneficial as it is now.
Q3. What is the progress on Russia Pakistan Trade?
(AVF): The progress is substantial and recently it has been clearly visible. The new ground-breaking ventures not only include oil and the shipping line mentioned earlier, but a couple of other things as well. For example, Pakistan passed a special order to allow barter trade with Russia and the trucking line from Russia was also launched thanks to bilateral agreements between our countries. Taking these developments into consideration, I believe we will see the reflection of these trends in the next report on the trade volume. The export and import will hopefully grow tremendously, making a considerable contribution to the national economies of Pakistan and Russia.
Q4: His Excellency there is a need to promote Russian language in Pakistan and Urdu in Russia. I suggest Russian language learning on line classes might be arranged. What is your opinion about it?
(AVF) : It is an interesting idea that can work out. With the recent progress in our relations, we can witness a trend when people discover the interest in studying culture and language of both Russia and Pakistan. Just an example, this year a Russian language course was launched on the platform of the International Relations Department of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology. I guess if we continue to maintain the current pace of the development of our relations, the demand for learning Russian and Urdu languages will grow further and people will take advantage of this opportunity.
Q5: There is a need to exchange business and media persons delegations to Russia and from Russia to Pakistan. Is there any such plan under consideration?
(AVF): As I told you before, Pakistan and Russia have increased the level and frequency of their official and business contacts. Media track is also important, especially taking into consideration that your press is mostly objective and does not produce fakes on industrial scale like Western outlets. Unfortunately, I cannot share any such plans with you, but I think they will be made public when finalized and you will know about that.
Q6: What is the recent progress on Russia Ukraine War? How did Wagner’s rebellion was overcome and do you think some western countries were behind that?
(AVF): A few weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin positively assessed the progress in Ukraine. He said that our troops act heroically, taking critical positions and heights unexpectedly for the enemy. According to him, no attempts to break our defence were successful. You see, Western powers tried to hype this so-called counteroffensive by Ukrainian militants, but even the media in that countries cannot deny that Ukraine has not achieved any progress in any of its operations.
As for your second question, we can never rule out any possibility of western involvement in our domestic matters considering the fact how stubbornly they try to influence our politics. As it was pointed out by our Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov”, “Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, John Kirby, has said that the United States does not interfere in Russia’s domestic affairs and does not intend to carry out regime change in our country. But knowing the track record of the United States as far as regime is concerned, this statement has a hollow ring compared to other countries and territories about which the United States did not make any statements along these lines.” Whether they were entangled or not, the rebellion was swiftly neutralized and the clear and unanimous support for the president of Russia was demonstrated during these events. The attempt to destabilize the order in our country was doomed to fail.
Q7: His Excellency few words about The News Lark, it’s team and the work we have done to promote Pakistan Russia Friendship.
(AVF): I am extremely grateful to The News Lark for the cooperation. You are without any doubt doing a great work to promote Russia Pakistan friendship, which is very beneficial for both countries. It is also important for the press to be objective and provide a platform for all points of view and not to stick to reprinting Western news articles, which, to say the least, are not often very objective.
Thank you very much for questions!
Dr. Syed Mehboob Senior Research Editor, The News Lark Karachi thanked His Excellency for sparing time from his very busy schedule and assured him that The News Lark will continue his cooperation with the Consulate General and to continue its efforts to promote Pakistan Russia Relations |