Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko sent a message to his colleagues, ambassadors of Canada, Poland and Great Britain, that “no one gave them the right to lecture Russians.”
I would advise the ambassadors to redirect their attention to their countries’ relations with Belgrade. Above all to find ‘wisdom, trust and remembrance’ within themselves and to take an honest look at their countries’ duplicitous politics on Kosovo, said Botsan-Kharchenko reacting to an article by ambassadors Giles Norman, Rafał Perl and Sian Macleod published Thursday in the daily Politika under the headline ‘Wisdom, Trust and Remembrance.’
In a statement published Friday in the daily Politika the Russian Ambassador said the Western ambassadors’ article was “a primitive pamphlet whose headline is completely contrary to its content,” adding that, for some reason, “the authors of the text do not remember the 1999 bombing of Serbia on the May 9 Victory Day, and on the so-called May 8 Europe Day.”
„And in Ukraine? Where is your compassion regarding the eight years of systematic genocide against several million inhabitants of Donbas, whose protection Russia stood up for? Just as it rose again as a bulwark in the path of neo-Nazism that the West encouraged and encourages in Ukraine, sending its mercenaries into the ranks of its supporters. Where is your anger over the war crimes of the Kiev regime, the killing of civilians by rockets and grenades from your countries? What about the military biolabs where the most dangerous experiments were conducted? Where is the righteous indignation over the violent Ukrainization of national minorities by Kiev: Russians, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians and others?“ asked Botsan- Kharchenko.
In a joint text the ambassadors of Canada, Poland and Great Britain said that all those who care about the future, not only of the people of Ukraine but also of the Russian people must send an unequivocal message that the best way to reduce suffering and destruction is for the Kremlin to immediately change its course.
They said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to military failure, international condemnation and dissatisfaction on the domestic front is the further dragging of the state into the mud with conflicts and even greater violence against the people of Ukraine, while, at the same time, Russian lives are being wasted.
The deaths, destruction and devastation will leave a stain on Russia’s reputations and, the longer they last, the darker that stain will be, said ambassadors Norman, Perk and Macleod.