At 99 years old in May, Henry Kissingerm, former US Secretary of State – coming out with his latest book, Leadership – talks about the war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin, president of Russia: “I respected his intelligence, he was a careful calculating from the point of view of a society he interpreted as being under siege by the rest of the world. I found him an intelligent analyst of the international situation from the Russian point of view, which will remain so and will have to be considered when the war ends ».
“Russia – underlines Kissinger – has been part of European history for five hundred years, has been involved in all the great crises and in some of the great triumphs of European history and therefore it should be the mission of Western and Russian diplomacy to return to historical course for which Russia is part of the European system. Russia has an important role to play. Russia will see itself as an extension of Europe or as an extension of Asia to the margins of Europe ”.
To Corriere della Sera Kissinger says that «the invasion of Russia must be defeated, not Russia itself. The question of the relationship between Russia and Europe will be taken very seriously ». The former secretary of state replies to those who have criticized him for Davos’s words, fearing that he has been misunderstood: “The end of the war must be expressed in terms of political objectives, as well as military ones. You cannot continue to fight without having any objective to relate to ».