Now the diplomatic world along the East-West line is reminiscent of a disturbed beehive. I can’t remember such a number of visits and telephone conversations. It’s as if they forgot about the pandemic and the “isolation” of Russia. There is not much content yet, but activity gives hope that the brains will be turned on sooner or later.
But this is basic optimism. Real events, however, are unsettling. On Saturday evening, US President Biden requested an emergency call conversation with Putin. The leaders discussed for about an hour and a half. Russia did not receive a substantive response to the proposals on non-expansion of NATO, the return of the Alliance’s infrastructure to the state of 1997 and the refusal to deploy foreign Armed Forces in Ukraine. Biden insisted on a completely different agenda.
Here is a commentary on the results of the conversation, which was given by the assistant to the president Vladimir Putin Yuri Ushakov: “The conversation took place in an atmosphere of unprecedented hysteria by American officials about Russia’s supposedly imminent invasion of Ukraine. Referring to the likelihood of such a catastrophic scenario, the American side requested today’s telephone contact between the presidents, although it was planned to hold this conversation early next week, on Monday “Similar requests for urgent phone calls were made by other members of the administration, who had conversations yesterday and today with many Russian colleagues. That is, the escalation around the topic of the ‘invasion’ was carried out in a coordinated manner, and the hysteria reached its climax.”
The Russian position at the beginning of the week was once again “chewed” by Putin during the visit to Moscow of French President Macron. What does the whole complex of problems look like?
Usually this happens at negotiations, but this time two pre-prepared flags – Russian and French – were put on public display right from their cockpit by the pilots of President Emmanuel Macron, as soon as the liner landed in Vnukovo.
Macron goes to the Kremlin. The first thing the French notice is that it’s cold. Macron climbs the steps alone to meet Putin. Presidents share 6m table – for reasons of sanitary safety, which eventually found understanding. But the fact that the largest military potentials of NATO and Russia should be divorced (for security reasons of the whole world, Putin again had to explain almost on his fingers.
“Why is the possible admission of Ukraine so dangerous? Well, there is a problem. European countries, including France, believe that Crimea, for example, is part of Ukraine. And we believe that it is part of the Russian Federation. And if attempts are made to change this situation by military means, and the doctrinal documents of Ukraine state that Russia is an adversary and the return of Crimea by military means is possible. Imagine that Ukraine is a member of NATO. This means that a military confrontation will arise between Russia and NATO. Should we I want to ask you too, there is the second part of this question. Do you want to fight with Russia? You will ask your readers and viewers, users of Internet resources: do you want? Do you want France to fight with Russia?” – said the Russian president.
But already today the French infantry is only 100 kilometers from the Russian border. Drowning in the snow in Estonia, the elite 5th Dragoon Regiment of France, where Napoleon’s younger brother Louis Bonaparte served as a colonel, tests its current combat capability with frost.
Now, NATO commanders are stressing endlessly that their soldiers will not, under any circumstances, go to Ukraine. But what if you think at least one step ahead?
“Do you understand or not that if Ukraine joins NATO and takes back Crimea by military means, European countries will automatically be drawn into a military conflict with Russia. Of course, the potential of the united organization of NATO and Russia is not comparable. We understand, but we also that Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers, and even ahead of many in some components. There will be no winners,” Vladimir Putin stressed.
“The coming days will be decisive and obviously require intense discussions, which we will continue together,” the French president said.
Discussions on the Minsk agreements have been going on for 7 years. Agreed with Russia, France and Germany, approved by the United States and the UN Security Council document Ukraine is sabotaging in front of everyone.
“In Kiev, they either say that they will comply, or they say that it will destroy their country. The current president recently said that he doesn’t like a single point from these Minsk agreements. Like it, don’t like it – be patient, my beauty. It won’t work any other way,” Putin said. At this point, the simultaneous interpreters faltered and only translated the meaning that Kiev must respect the treaty, so Macron did not catch the popular expression.
But Zelensky got excited and the next day after negotiations with the French president, he answered as best he could, for which he even switched to Russian: “I like it, I don’t like it – be patient, my beauty. Of course, there are things that you can’t argue with the president of the Russian Federation: Ukraine really beautiful. But about “mine” – it’s too much. And as for “be patient”, Ukraine is very patient, and this is wisdom. And this is important not only for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe.”
To the discussion of the phrase about the beauty unexpectedly Jen Psaki also joinedhowever, as usual, the conversation generally led her somewhere in the wrong direction.
– Many Russian speakers interpreted the President’s phrase about Ukraine as a joke about rape.
– I would say that any joke about rape, of course, is outraged by everyone in the US administration, regardless of whether it comes from the mouth of an American or foreign official, – Psaki said.
In general, everyone understands to the extent of their depravity. Like Zelensky, who is sure that Ukraine is Europe, while the country has launched a massive persecution of objectionable media and political opponents, including even the Maidan president. Petro Poroshenko faces 15 years in prison – he is accused of treason, hinting that he is guilty of signing the Minsk agreements.
“I wasn’t joking when I said: ‘You know, there will come another time, we will be ready to grant you political asylum for humanitarian reasons.’ Not because we really like or liked his policy, but for humanitarian reasons. I knew that it will be like looking into the water. And so it happened. Here you are, now he is under investigation there, “Putin said.
And this is only a small part of the most difficult consequences of the Maidan of February 2014, when the West obviously played too much.
“From now on, for us, power is in Ukraine, the source of power is a coup d’etat, and not the will of the people. Under these conditions, we were forced to protect the people who live in Crimea. After all, representatives of several countries arrived in 2014, European countries signed, guaranteed peaceful course of the political process, three days later they seized power by force of arms. They themselves do nothing, but they demand some kind of performance from us. Let’s not play like that, it’s a bad sandbox. We don’t like this kind of game,” Putin said.
In the hope of reaching out to the consciousness of Western politicians, Russia is using every opportunity. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received a colleague from Great Britain. It seemed that at least something could be discussed constructively, because this is the first such meeting in Moscow in 5 years. But it turned out that in all the 50 years of his diplomatic career, Lavrov had hardly encountered such a counterpart.
“We are succeeding in a conversation between a mute and a deaf person – we seem to be listening, but we don’t hear. We didn’t hear anything confidential, confidential, except for what is regularly heard from the high stands in London,” Lavrov stated.
“I certainly was not dumb in our conversation, I clearly articulated the UK’s position on the situation,” British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss said.
However, sometimes it is better to be silent than to speak. During the talks, the head of British diplomacy expressed claims in connection with the movement of Russian troops in the south of the country. But in response to Lavrov’s clarifying question whether she recognizes Russia’s sovereignty over the Rostov and Voronezh regions, she answered with a blue eye that Great Britain would never recognize this sovereignty. Then the embassy justified itself for such embarrassment, which goes back to the famous British highly likely. This is highly likely always enough to blame Russia and threaten sanctions. The British Minister of Defense also came to Moscow with this and immediately hinted that he coped with the negotiations better than his colleague Truss.
“Minister Shoigu and General Gerasimov assured us that Russia would not attack Ukraine. There were no blind or deaf people in our conversation,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said. Maybe because the Russian Ministry of Defense has exhaustive information on how much and what kind of weapons the West is pumping into Ukraine?
“This is being done in a revealing way. It’s not entirely clear why. I would also like to understand why Britain sent its special forces to Ukraine and how long will they be there?” – said the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu.
The United States is going to increase military supplies to Ukraine if the escalation continues, the White House said. Following the results of Saturday’s telephone conversations between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, which took place at the initiative of the American side, Biden said that the United States is ready for diplomacy, but also for the imposition of sanctions. The conversation lasted more than an hour, in Washington it was called “professional and meaningful.” The presidents agreed that their teams would continue to maintain contact in the coming days.
And, as agreed, after his trip to Moscow and Kiev, Macron called Putin on Saturday. They talked even longer – 1 hour 40 minutes. The Kremlin said it discussed, among other things, “a situation involving provocative speculation about an allegedly planned Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
“As for what we will do next. Now we will prepare a response to the paper that we received from Washington and Brussels. There are things that can be discussed. We will seek, of course, answers to key questions,” Vladimir Putin said. And this is the non-expansion of NATO, the return of the military infrastructure to the positions of 1997, when the founding act Russia-NATO was signed, and the non-deployment of strike weapons near Russian borders. All of these are de-escalation steps that need to be taken.