Russia disputes imminent ‘invasion’ of Ukraine
well-known. It already happened when Secretary of State Colin Powell demonstrated a lab glass filled with some white substance and said it was proof that Iraq had WMDs. The weapons were never discovered, but everyone knew what happened to that state later.
Russia has its own securityrelated concerns about increasing politico-military tensions in the immediate vicinity of its western borders. The Ukraine’s non-accession to NATO and nondeployment of foreign troops at the Ukraine’s territory constitute only a small portion of muchneeded arrangements that could considerably improve the military and political situation in Europe and the whole world.
With a view to avoid any further escalation, the Russian side presented on Dec. 15, 2021 the drafts of two interconnected international legal documents — a Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on Security guarantees and an Agreement on Measures to ensure the Security of the Russian Federation and Member States of the NATO. The Americans gave their replies on Jan. 26, 2022, and as President Vladimir Putin said, “The fundamental concerns about the situation have been ignored.” First of all, they ignored the demands for honest implementation of the agreements on the indivisibility of security, which were reached in the OSCE framework in Istanbul in 1999 and in Astana in 2010. These agreements not only envisaged the freedom to choose alliances, but also made this freedom dependent on the need to avoid any steps that would enhance security at the expense of the security of others.
The authors of the article are talking about “an aura of mystery around Russian President Vladimir Putin” and his “way of keeping his opponents guessing.” It’s another wrong statement. For those who really want to learn and understand what the Russian leader has in mind, it’s just enough to show a little more interest and listen or to read his statements as well as the statements of Russian officials but not their false interpretations given by the collective West.
What will happen if the Ukraine joins NATO? What does it mean to Russia? In the news conference following Russian-Hungarian talks on Feb. 1, 2021, President Putin explained very clearly what a threat it will be to Russia and to the whole world. Here are main points:
The promise was given to Russia not to move the infrastructure of the NATO bloc to the east by a single inch. Today, we see where NATO is located — Poland, Romania and the Baltic countries. The US said one thing and did another. It simply deceived Russia.
The US withdrew from
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. And now, missile defense launchers are located in Romania and are being created in Poland. And there are MK-41 launchers on which Tomahawks can be installed. It is no longer an anti-missile, but strike systems that will cover Russian territory for thousands of kilometers. Isn’t this a threat to Russia?
The US defends the right of the Ukraine to be accepted into NATO. In the doctrinal documents of the Ukraine it is written that it was going to return the Crimea, including by military means. Let’s imagine that the Ukraine is a member of NATO: it is stuffed with weapons; there are modern strike systems in the same way as in Poland and Romania. The Crimea is sovereign Russian territory. Imagine that the Ukraine is a NATO country and starts these military operations. Should Russia fight the NATO bloc? Has anyone thought about this? It doesn’t seem like it.
The United States is not so much concerned about the security of the Ukraine although it may be thinking about it but somewhere in the background. Its main task is to curb the development of Russia. That’s the problem. In this sense, the Ukraine itself is just a tool to achieve this goal. This can be done in different ways. By dragging Russia into some kind of armed conflict and forcing, among other things, their allies in Europe to impose very tough sanctions against it; or draw the Ukraine into NATO, set up strike weapon systems there and encourage some Bandera people Hneo-Nazis in the Ukraine) to resolve the issue of Donbass or the Crimea by force of arms; and thus, still draw Russia into an armed conflict.
If we take a deep, serious look at all these numerous questions, it becomes clear that in order to avoid such a negative development of the situation, and Russia wants to avoid it, we need to find a way to ensure the interests and security of all participants in this process: the Ukraine, European countries and Russia. But this can be done only with a serious, thoughtful attitude to the documents Russia has proposed.
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in his recent interview to Russian media on Jan. 28, 2022: “If it depends on the Russian Federation, there will be no war. We don’t want wars, but we won’t allow anyone to trample on our interests or ignore them, either.”
I hope my humble letter will be published in The Manila Times. I believe that the above information will help its esteemed readers to shape a holistic view of what has been really going on as well as the current situation in the security sphere.