Davos, Switzerland (AP) – A veteran Russian diplomat at the UN office in Geneva says he resigned after sending bad letters to foreign colleagues investigating Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “aggressive war” in Ukraine.
Boris Bondarev, 41, confirmed his resignation Monday morning after a diplomatic official told The Associated Press in English.
“In the twenty years of my diplomatic career, I have seen various changes in our foreign policy, but I have never embarrassed my country as much as on February 24 of this year,” he wrote referring to the Russian date. aggression.
The resignation is a rare, if not unprecedented, public acknowledgment to the Russian diplomatic corps of dissatisfaction with the Russian war in Ukraine. It comes at a time when the Putin government is trying to suppress differences in aggression and suppress narratives that contradict the Russian government’s line of how a “special military operation” takes place – as it is officially known in Russia. .
“Putin’s aggressive war against Ukraine, and indeed the entire Western world, is not only a crime against Ukrainian citizens, but perhaps the most serious crime against Russian citizens, with the bold letter Z. ” All hopes and hopes for a prosperous. and independent society in our country, ”Bondarev wrote, pointing to the widespread use of the letter“ Z ”as a symbol of support for the Russian war in Ukraine.
Contacted by phone Bondarev – a diplomatic adviser focused on Russia’s role in post -disarmament areas such as Cambodia and Mongolia – confirmed his resignation in a letter to Ambassador Gennady Gatilov.
The mission spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP.
“What my government is doing now is unbearable,” Bondarev told The Associated Press. “As a civil servant, I have to accept responsibility for this. And I don’t want to do that. “
Bondarev said he had not yet received any reactions from Russian officials, but added: “I wonder if Moscow can react. I have to think.”
He told the AP he had no plans to leave Geneva. Earlier, he said he had expressed dissatisfaction with the war with his Russian counterparts.
“Some said:‘ Not everyone agrees, but we need to keep working ’, while others replied:‘ Shut up and stop the spread of this evil influence, especially among young diplomats, ’” he recalled.
When asked if some of his colleagues felt the same way, Bondarev said: “Not all Russian diplomats are warriors. They are reasonable, but they need to keep quiet. “
His case can serve as an example.
“If my case was prosecuted, if other people wanted to be prosecuted, they didn’t want it,” Bondarev said.
Asked if he might have a flaw, he laughed and said, “I never thought of that.”
In a statement in English he sent to about 40 diplomats and others, Bondarev said the creators of the war had “only one wish: to stay in power forever, to live in pompous and tasteless mansions, to sail on yachts, by the ton ”. And it costs the entire Russian navy, which enjoys unlimited power and total impunity ”.
He criticized the growing “lies and lack of professionalism” in the Russian Foreign Ministry and specifically addressed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“For 18 years he (Lavrov) has gone from being a professional and educated intellectual to someone who constantly spreads contradictory claims and threatens the world with nuclear weapons!” He wrote. “Now the (Russian) Foreign Ministry doesn’t refer to diplomacy. It’s about war, lies and hatred.”
Hiller Neuer, Executive Director of Advocacy Group UN Watch, He published a copy of Bondarev’s letter And he just said: “Boris Bondarev is a hero”.
“Bondarev should be invited to Davos this week to speak,” he added, citing the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) must pave the way for the creation of a free world program that encourages more Russian diplomats to join and migrate, provide security, financial security and resettle diplomats and their families.
In his e-mail, Bondarev wrote that he should have resigned earlier, but this did not happen because of “some unfinished family business” and because he needed to “collect my decision”.
“It has been three months since my government launched a bloody attack on Ukraine, and it is very difficult to keep my mind more or less in turmoil when everyone is missing them,” he wrote.
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Source: Huffpost
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.