Dear Editor,
Sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States of America against the Russian Federation as a foreign policy instrument are not very effective and almost never produce the hoped-for results. They cause some damage, including to those who impose them.
The latest round of sanctions looks somewhat strange. Especially after President of Russia Vladimir Putin proposed a seven-point plan that became the basis of the peace agreements signed at the meeting of the contact group in Minsk. As a result the hostilities have stopped in south-east Ukraine. The peace process and first contacts have begun. The possibility that this process might produce a political settlement has emerged. The OSCE observers registered thousands of Ukrainian refugees returning from Russia to their homes in south-east Ukraine.
The claims that Russia has invaded Ukraine or provides the militia in south-east Ukraine with weapons are groundless. To date no evidence has been presented to support it. OSCE observers deployed at the checkpoints on the border between Russia and Ukraine have not confirmed any movement of military equipment or troops from Russia to Ukraine.
But it is hard to understand what these latest sanctions against Russia are actually about. Perhaps it is not to someone’s liking that the process has taken a peaceful turn. Our Western partners pushed things towards an anti-constitutional coup in Kiev, and then supported the military operations in south-east Ukraine, and now, just when the situation has taken a turn towards a peaceful settlement, they are taking steps that practically aim to disrupt this peace process. Why are they doing this?
One can’t help but think that no one actually cares about Ukraine itself. They are just using Ukraine as an instrument to shake up international relations. Ukraine is being used as an instrument and has been made hostage to the desire of some players on the international stage to revive NATO, not so much even as a military organisation, but as a key instrument in US foreign policy in order to consolidate satellites and scare them with a threat from abroad. But if this is the case, this is really sad, because it means that Ukraine has essentially become hostage to another’s interests.
If it were not for Crimea or south-east Ukraine, the Western countries would have come up with something else ‘to contain Russia,’ to isolate it and by doing so to impose their domination in the international system. The world is changing and becoming polycentric. There emerge other centres of economic growth and financial aid with political influence. This tendency is hard to change and resistance to it gives way to crises.
Yours faithfully,
Denis Kopyl
Press Attaché
Russian Embassy in Guyana
