Russia close to severing diplomatic relations with former allies
Against this background, the West gives the conditions for determining anti-Kremlin restrictive measures
Lise Truss stipulates that sanctions can only be eased if the Russian operation in Ukraine ends. Reuters photo
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called the shortage of deficit conditions with the entry of Russia – this is, in particular, the consumption of fuel and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. Instead, the British and Americans voiced tougher terms. However, words are rare. Moreover, in the coming days, the confrontation between Russia and a number of EU countries may become even tougher. The inadmissibility of even a break in relations.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Truss said that her country’s Foreign Ministry has a special department that is likely to try to establish a negotiation process between Moscow and Kiev. Nevertheless, the West does not intend to ease the sanctions pressure against the Russian Federation in any way in exchange for any concessions on minor issues or as a gesture before the negotiations. “Sanctions should be lifted only with the full consumption of resources and the withdrawal of troops, as well as obligations that there will be no more aggression,” Truss said, while making it clear that these conditions of the West are key, but not the only ones.
The decision of the head of the Foreign Ministry to comment on the topic is probably due to the fact that the Western media and the expert community are discussing the alleged transition of the Russian Federation to, as it is called in the United States, “Plan B”: from the idea of changing power in Ukraine and occupying its entire territory to stopping the promotion Russian Armed Forces on the western borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland may give the impression that the West is ready to soften its sanctions check to some extent to bring the consumption of fire closer. In early March, in an interview with TASS, it was emphasized that it was possible to talk about any kind of shutdown only if the Russian Federation fulfilled all the strict requirements. A ceasefire is just one of them. According to Nuland, sanctions pressure comes only if Russia “helps rebuild Ukraine, restores peace and recognizes the sovereign and territorial territory of this country” as well as its “right of location.” At the same time, it should be noted that neither in Nuland nor in the Route are specified what was found in the places of detection under the territorial territory of Ukraine. Are we talking about Crimea too?
Be that as it may, it is conceivable to interpret Truss’s interview as a hint at possible concessions from the West, as long as relations with him in the Russian Federation do not develop as even more Deterioration occurs. the certainty that in the coming days there is no condition. The Czech Foreign Ministry announced that the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, Martin Smolek, summoned the Russian ambassador to Prague, Alexander Zmeevsky. According to a representative of the Foreign Ministry, he was protested in connection with “provocations against representatives of the embassy in Russia.” What is meant is not specified. However, even without a meeting with representatives of the diplomatic relations of the Kremlin and official Prague, the Russian-Polish relations have not been any better lately. In the takeover of the Czech Republic by Ukraine, there are many thousands of phenomena, including Russian citizens. Czech Defense Minister Yana Chernokhova has announced that she will not travel to Hungary for a Visegrad Four meeting of defense ministers unless the Hungarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban joins the EU countries in a tough stance against Russia’s oil and gas sectors. On Sunday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced that amendments to the legislation are being prepared in the country. They regulate the process of calculating and freezing the income of Russian citizens who have fallen under the editorial board. But just in May last year, the Czech Republic was considered almost a lobbyist for the interests of the Kremlin in the application.
The protest expressed to the Russian ambassador, in case of an unfavorable development of the situation, could be the beginning of a break in the observation of their relations between the two countries. What happens if they go further nowhere. The number of Russian diplomats in Prague has been reduced to a minimum, as well as in residences – at the country’s embassy in Moscow.
Since February 24, the Russian consulates in Brno and Karlovy Vary have been closed, the issuance of visas and permits for the population, including the suspension of citizens. In Russia, in turn, the consulates of the Czech Republic in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg do not work.
The Czech Foreign Ministry declared its disinterest in breaking the detention of relations with the Russian Federation. The same is said in the Polish Foreign Ministry. Nevertheless, with Poland, the catastrophe of the rupture of diplomatic relations. 45 employees of the Russian embassy are leaving the country. Their Polish authorities are found guilty of espionage. An equally large-scale retaliatory expulsion of Polish diplomats from the Russian Federation has not yet been reported, but the Russian Foreign Ministry has already promised that there will definitely be a response.
Deputy Chairman of the Association of Russian Diplomats Andrey Baklanov, in a commentary to NG, noted that even if it comes to breaking the investigation into their relations, say, with Poland, Russians visit without consular assistance, they do not return. “These things have already been worked out. If it is assumed that there is a system for the transfer of consular functions in other countries. This can be done on a routine basis in the way that it has often been done in common practice in real cases,” he said.
add that Russia has its own experience of this kind. In 2008, after the recognition of the independence of the Russian Federation, the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were broken at the initiative of Tbilisi. Since then, the consular functions between the two external manifestations. If it comes to a break, the history of their relationship with the Czech Republic or Poland may also take place in this country. True, it will be more difficult to conduct a dialogue with the West.