by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for The Guardian
The west has been needlessly whipping up tension – if we don’t co-operate soon, chaos may take hold
The profound and pervasive crisis in Ukraine is a matter of grave concern for Russia. We understand perfectly well the position of a country which became independent just over 20 years ago and still faces complex tasks in constructing a sovereign state. Among them is the search for a balance of interests among its various regions, the peoples of which have different historical and cultural roots, speak different languages and have different perspectives on their past and present, and their country’s future place in the world.
Sergei Lavrov |
Given these circumstances, the role of external forces should have been to help Ukrainians protect the foundations of civil peace and sustainable development, which are still fragile. Russia has done more than any other country to support the independent Ukrainian state, including for many years subsidising its economy through low energy prices. Last November, at the outset of the current crisis, we supported Kiev’s wish for urgent consultations between Ukraine, Russia and the EU to discuss harmonising the integration process. Brussels flatly rejected it. This stand reflected the unproductive and dangerous line the EU and US have been taking for a long time. They have been trying to compel Ukraine to make a painful choice between east and west, further aggravating internal differences.
Ukraine’s realities notwithstanding, massive support was provided to political movements promoting western influence, and it was done in direct breach of the Ukrainian constitution. This is what happened in 2004, when President Viktor Yushchenko won an unconstitutional third round of elections introduced under EU pressure. This time round, power in Kiev was seized undemocratically, through violent street protests conducted with the direct participation of ministers and other officials from the US and EU countries.
Assertions that Russia has undermined efforts to strengthen partnerships on the European continent do not correspond to the facts. On the contrary, our country has steadily promoted a system of equal and indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic area. We proposed signing a treaty to that effect, and advocated the creation of a common economic and human space from the Atlantic to the Pacific which would also be open to post-Soviet countries.
In the meantime, western states, despite their repeated assurances to the contrary, have carried out successive waves of Nato enlargement, moved the alliance’s military infrastructure eastward and begun to implement antimissile defence plans. The EU’s Eastern Partnership programme is designed to bind the so-called focus states tightly to itself, shutting down the possibility of co-operation with Russia. Attempts by those who staged the secession of Kosovo from Serbia and of Mayotte from the Comoros to question the free will of Crimeans cannot be viewed as anything but a flagrant display of double standards. No less troubling is the pretence of not noticing that the main danger for the future of Ukraine is the spread of chaos by extremists and neo-Nazis.
Russia is doing all it can to promote early stabilisation in Ukraine. We are firmly convinced that this can be achieved through, among other steps: real constitutional reform, which would ensure the legitimate rights of all Ukrainian regions and respond to demands from its south-eastern region to make Russian the state’s second official language; firm guarantees on Ukraine’s non-aligned status to be enshrined in its laws, thus ensuring its role as a connecting link in an indivisible European security architecture; and urgent measures to halt activity by illegal armed formations of the Right Sector and other ultra-nationalist groups.
We are not imposing anything on anyone, we just see that if it is not done, Ukraine will continue to spiral into crisis with unpredictable consequences. We stand ready to join international efforts aimed at achieving these goals. We support the appeal by foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland to implement the 21 February agreement. Their proposal – to hold Russia-EU talks with the participation of Ukraine and other Eastern Partnership states about the consequences of EU association agreements – corresponds to our position.The world of today is not a junior school where teachers assign punishments at will. Belligerent statements such as those heard at the Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on 1 April do not match demands for a de-escalation. De-escalation should begin with rhetoric. It is time to stop the groundless whipping-up of tension, and to return to serious common work.
sheesh take a look at the comments section of the article
Surprised the newspaper even interviewed him.
The paper is an MI5 or 6 – can’t remember which paper…..no surprise with some of the comments – the uneducated masses….there are some golden nuggets in there though.
I also read somewhere today that the right sector have occupied a building in Kiev? Don’t know if this is true – so they have problems there too.
As usual, what Lavrov says makes good sense.
As for the Guardian printing this, it’s their one allowed honest report a month. I think they are allowed one honest article a month, but maybe it’s one per two months? These brief lapses into honesty are to balance out the rest of Guardian’s “news” reporting, which is altogether dishonest zionazi spin, so the Jewish zionists who own/run Guardian can claim they provide “balanced and fair” news coverage.
During the previous orange “color revolution” in the Ukraine, I monitored Guardian’s coverage. They printed just 3 pieces that provided anything close to an honest perspective of that coup process. All were editorials, 2 of which by non-Guardian writers. This was contrasted with daily reports from orange protestors and frequent regular stories of the conflict. All of these stories were propaganda in support of the coup makers.
Up until I ran that study, I had been under the mistaken opinion that the Guardian was progressive and somewhat left wing. That cured my ignorance.
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14:51 Lots of them are paid trolls, sock-puppets and the like; also although the US may appear to have a monopoly on stupid, there’s still plenty to go around. More significantly, the leadership in various countries who still have working brains (and maybe even spines) appear to be beginning to use them.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/01/us-ukraine-crisis-bulgaria-idUSBREA301B020140401
And not just Bulgaria either: try this: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/07/the-president-is-a-bully/
A person truly aware of what is going on would have to be willfully blind not to see the US ship of state sinking not-so-slowly. The problem, to mix metaphors just a bit while also sadly remaining literally true to fact, is how to keep the radioactive mess from polluting the planet.
Anonymous said…07 April, 2014 14:51
“sheesh take a look at the comments section of the article”
That’s that wonderful zionist Jewish-Catholic coalition working together to make sure hate and ignorance prevail above all else. I should write it JEWISH-catholic to better represent the pecking order. The Guardian spent years painstakingly micromanaging exactly what could be said and who was allowed to say it in comments on their zionazi propaganda. As a result, it’s mostly Jewish sayanim and their [mostly Catholic] shabbas goy sidekicks who stuck around. Muslims especially were “encouraged” not to comment.
Many of those people commenting like to hang out at Guardian’s unofficial site for web sayanim. This is sort of their internet “Starbucks” and “hair salon” – the “in place” for Anglo web sayanim.
http://notthetalk.com/
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Talking of ships.. does anyone expect a hegemon to go quietly?
It’s not the way of preditors.
And if every year he waits the Russo/Chinese resistance is more and better prepared for the confrontation..
Moby Dick, a prophesy?
Captain Ahab going for broke?
That was the prognostic from a retiring Yale professor reflecting on the underlying mythos of his country.
Do or die.
Sorry to be pessimistic.
Russia keeps looking like the only full-fledged adult around, while the US descends from angry adolescent to a full-fledged four-year-old starting to have a temper tantrum.
China sure gets it: http://rt.com/news/china-us-biden-interfere-897/
These are going to be some interesting times indeed. And sooner rather than later, the US will end up getting what it deserves — and we will have done it all to ourselves. Every. Last. Bit.
When someone of the stature of Sergei Lavrov has a piece in the Guardian, it gives them credibility, even though such truth tellers run counter to the Trotskist/Fabian Society agenda of the organization and 90% of what it publishes.
I spend a lot of time on a large, international general discussion forum where Ukraine, Syria, Libya, etc, are and have been hot topics generating threads hundreds of pages long. The Hasbara trolls are there 24/7 but easy to pick out even when Jews and Israel are not brought up. I recognize the same shills in the Guardian comments. The good part is that they are losing this information war in a big way. Most humans who bother to follow serious topics and events are actually attracted to the truth. When they see the constant BS coming from the shills, the shills dig their graves even deeper. So, keep calling out those shills and countering their bullshit, every day. It’s working people! The days of the Satanic Anglo Zionist empire are numbered.
One thing, Saker: How can I transfer my measly amount of money to a Russian bank?! Russian banks need to create debit cards that can be used around the world for those of us who want to take this step to withdraw from the beast and support Russia for standing against it.
– Michigan
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That’s for sure, they ran this along with another how Russia has raised gas prices to the Ukraine leaving out the fact the contract was up and they had been receiving a 60% discount before.
Russia bad and the new Amerika good, stories from corp. media
The Guardian is a very slimy, hypocritical, rag, posing as ‘liberal’. It runs one article opposing the Groupthink in the West, so it can pose as ‘balanced’, while running twenty anti-Putin rants replete with lies and hysterical hate-mongering. And it employs real anti-Russian zealots like the odious Luke Harding.
The Guardian is a very slimy, hypocritical, rag, posing as ‘liberal’. It runs one article opposing the Groupthink in the West, so it can pose as ‘balanced’, while running twenty anti-Putin rants replete with lies and hysterical hate-mongering. And it employs real anti-Russian zealots like the odious Luke Harding.
no it is not russia, the leader of the free world.
zionized amurderka is destabilising the ukraine, syria, iraq, venezuela, libya, pakistan, afganistan….
destabilising and destroying.