Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) hugs United Nations special envoy on Libya Abdelilah Al-Khatib (R) during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, 16 May 2011.
President Dmitry Medvedev, whose Africa envoy has met the National Transitional Council and Gaddafi’s government officials in Libya in recent weeks, said yesterday there was still a chance for compromise but that Gaddafi must give up power.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on its Twitter feed yesterday that Obeidi’s visit was Gaddafi’s initiative.
Konstantin Kosachyov, a ruling United Russia party member and chairman of the international affairs committee in the lower parliament house, said that was cause for cautious optimism.
“It means that people who are still in power in Tripoli are ready to talk and not just suppress the resistance of the population with tanks or other heavy weapons,” he said.
Kosachyov, who often serves as an informal spokesman on Kremlin foreign policy, said Gaddafi and his government should be offered guarantees in exchange for leaving power.
“Probably what can be discussed is some kind of guarantees of his personal security, the security of members of his family,” Kosachyov told reporters, reiterating that Russia would not take Gaddafi in.
Kosachyov cast Russia’s diplomacy as the “antithesis” of the approach of Western nations involved in the air campaign and which recognise the NTC as Libya’s legitimate government.
Such actions undermine diplomacy and “lead the negotiations track into a dead end”, he said.
“With the full understanding that Gaddafi’s regime really has no future and really cannot remain in power, the difference is that we are ready to continue talking to this regime in order to induce it into political contacts with the NTC and in the final result induce it to leave power, to hand it over to the Libyan people in a peaceful, democratic manner,” he said.
Dmitry Trenin, a foreign policy analyst and director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the visit suggested members of Gaddafi’s circle are looking for a way out but amid the diplomacy, Gaddafi still holds the key to a resolution.
“He has had many opportunities to begin bargaining, to set out some conditions in exchange for leaving his position of power, but he has not used them yet,” Trenin told Reuters.
Kosachyov, who often serves as an informal spokesman on Kremlin foreign policy, said Gaddafi and his government should be offered guarantees in exchange for leaving power but reiterated Russia would not take Gaddafi in.
For Gaddafi, “probably what can be discussed is some kind of guarantees of his personal security, the security of members of his family,” said Kosachyov.
Trenin said members of Gaddafi’s circle were eager to ensure their own future security.
“He may decide to die in Tripoli, but those around him do not want to die with him, they do not want go to the bottom with him.”
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi said today that the Gaddafi government is not in any discussions about his potential departure form power, the Interfax news agency reported.
“Gaddafi’s departure is not being discussed,” Obeidi said after talks with Lavrov, according to Interfax.
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