George Bush gave an interview to the (Russian) NTV television station, the conversation was led by Vladimir Solovev
- Good morning Mr. President although it’s good evening for Russian audience because of such a chance. Your father is a world war 2 hero the youngest navy pilot, so how important the V day is for you personally and for your family?
- Well, thank you for asking about my Dad, he was like many in America and in Russia that were called upon to defend the world against Nazism. And fortunately he came home. And today the celebration in Russia will remind us all about the sacrifices of, in my case, the individual I love but also a generation. A generation of many women who made extraordinary efforts in Russia’s case to defend a homeland, in America’s case to work with Allies to defeat threat of Hitler as well as the Japanese. So it’s a special day for me personally because it reminds me of willingness of a young kid to go fight but it also reminds me of the duty of my generation to work together to make the world a better place.
- The after war Europe has been reshaped according to the Yalta conference on 1943 by the decision of three very important personalities of this time - Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill and Mr. Stalin. How fair is it to hold only Russia responsible for all the misfortunes of Eastern Europe and Baltic states?
- It’s a very fair question. Obviously the decision made at the end of the war. I think that the main complaint would be that the form of government that Baltic had to live under was not of their choosing but…no, there’s no question three leaders made the decision.
- So not only Russia the “bad guy” of the history?
- No, I think everybody. When historians look back at the Yalta they got to recognize you are rightly saw and pointed out it it wasn’t only the Russian leader but British and the American leaders were at table and agreed on the agreement.
- In Russia we are very concerned on the raise of neonazism in Baltic states when Russian war veterans are humiliated publicly, when monuments to Russian soldiers are vandalized and at the same time where on the May, 8th there’s a plan to open the monument to Nazi brigade that is well known not only for fighting against Russians but also for quite ugly things that were common for SS troops.
- Oh, look, there’s … I’ve got a message when I go to the Baltics and it’s important to respect democracy but also the respect of democracy is respect for minority rights. There’s true democracy is one that says minorities are important and that the will of the majority can’t trample the minority. As to whether or not nations are honoring Nazism I mean of course that should be rejected. Nazism was defeated. We’re celebrating the defeat of Nazism. We don’t wanna see Nazism return. It’s an extremist point of view that believes that you should be able to trample the rights of minorities. It was the Nazis that annihilated millions of Jews for example. There’s a classic example of the rights of minorities being trampled and we must never forget the lessons of why we fought together in the World War 2. And I’m looking forward to delivering that message of tolerance.
- There’s a question that has nothing to do with you visit to Russia but is very important to our country as an oil producing country. Once you mentioned that you’ll be happy to find a magic wand and to cut the price on oil. So what oil price will be acceptable for the United States and what do you think is a chance of finding that magic wand.
- There’s no magic wand. Soldier asked me and said why don’t you lower gasoline prices as if the government controlled price. And in our country the government doesn’t control price and I told him I said if I had a magic wand I would wave it and lower the price but it’s not the way it works. The price based upon supply and demand. And demand has been going up relative to supply which has been beneficial for oil-producing countries like Russia. I don’t know what the right price is. Obviously the lower the better for our economy because every time the dollar goes up on the gasoline price money leaves the pocketbooks of the working people. That’s the way the economy works. Hopefully higher price would stimulate more production, more production will then help the price reach an equilibrium and the market is what it is. And the markets decide, not governments. I would hope that Russia would encourage a lot of investment to open up the vast reserves she has. We need to do more exploration here. I spoke to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who assured me that he’s trying to put more … to find more oil, that’s what higher prices do. But the people who’ve got oil have got to understand if the price gets too high it could wreck economies which will mean there’s less purchasing power for the product.
- Thank you, Mr. President and welcome to Moscow.
- Looking forward to.
