Phnom Penh (FN), Apr. 9 – Below is a written interview between Fresh News CEO Lim Chea Vutha and Russian ambassador to Cambodia Anatoly Borovik.
Questions of Fresh News CEO Lim Chea Vutha conveyed to Russian Ambassador to Cambodia H.E. Anatoly Borovik
1. Firstly, the Russian troops launched a special operation against Ukraine territory on 24 February 2022, which is still on-going. Can you confirm the real reasons why Russia did this?
Over the past 30 years, we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement with the leading NATO countries regarding the principles of equal and indivisible security in Europe. In response to our proposals, we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and blackmail, while the North Atlantic alliance continued to expand despite our protests and concerns. Its military machine is moving and approaching our very border.
Today, we can see how Western countries have kept their promise to prevent NATO from moving eastward. We had five waves of the US-led military bloc expansion one after another since 1999. They resulted in NATO military infrastructure coming directly to Russia’s borders. This became one of the key causes of the European security crisis, and had the most negative impact on the entire system of international relations and led to the loss of mutual trust with the West.
Any further expansion of the North Atlantic alliance’s infrastructure or the ongoing efforts to gain a military foothold of the Ukrainian territory are unacceptable for us. The problem is that in territories adjacent to Russia a hostile “anti-Russia” has been taking shape. Fully controlled from the outside, it is doing everything to attract NATO armed forces and obtain cutting-edge weapons.
For the United States and its allies, it is a policy of containing Russia, with obvious geopolitical dividends. For our country, it is a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical future as a nation. It is not only a very real threat to our interests but to the very existence of our state and to its sovereignty.
The situation around Ukraine has been deteriorating since 2014 when the unconstitutional coup d’état was carried out in Kiev. Radical nationalists and neo-Nazis seized power there, unleashing terror in the country. Eastern regions of Ukraine that opposed the coup were accused of terrorism, but they had not attacked anyone. Kiev regime started a punitive war against its own people living in Donbass, bombed and shelled its own cities. Ukrainian forces destroyed civilian sites, schools, and hospitals. Almost 14,000 civilians, including children have been killed over this time.
Since 2014 those who rose to power after the coup in Kiev launched a punitive campaign against those who disagreed with them, and against everything Russian. Peaceful demonstrators were burnt alive in Odessa in 2014. The mass graves discovered in Donbass – irrefutable evidence of the massive shelling of civilian infrastructure perpetrated by the Ukrainian authorities. Forced assimilation has been promoted, Russian language purged from schools, public space and everyday life, with the law on indigenous people became the epitome of nationalistic hysteria. Lies about the Second World War led to Hitler's local henchmen been proclaimed heroes.
Besides that, Ukrainian authorities openly made territorial claims against our country and threatened to use force. As we know from the documents obtained during the special military operation by our troops, they were purposefully preparing for a scenario of force, massacre and ethnic cleaning in Donbass. Indulged by the West pouring weapons in that country, a massive onslaught on Donbass and later Crimea was just a matter of time.
Since 2015 those in power that be in Kiev have sabotaged the implementation of the UN approved Minsk Package of Measures for a peaceful settlement of the crises and ultimately late last year openly refused to implement it. They also started to implement plans to join NATO.
Moreover, the Ukrainian authorities also announced their intention to have nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles. This was a real threat. With foreign technical support, the Kiev regime would have obtained weapons of mass destruction in the foreseeable future and, of course, would have targeted them against Russia. Our numerous warnings that such developments posed a direct threat to the security of Russia were rejected open and cynical arrogance by Ukraine and its US and NATO patrons.
To put up an end to this situation, on 21 February Russia recognized Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as sovereign and independent states.
In the deteriorating context, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, with permission of Russia’s Federation Council, and in execution of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, President Putin made a decision to carry out a special military operation.
As Russian President clearly stated, the purpose of this operation is to protect the people who have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime for eight years now by fulfilling our allied obligations as well as to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine. To this end, we are seeking to bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.
It is not our plan to occupy the Ukrainian territory. We do not intend to impose anything on anyone by force. The current events have nothing to do with a desire to infringe on the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. They are connected with the defending Russia from those who have taken Ukraine hostage and are trying to use it against our country and our people.
During the special military operation in Ukraine, the Kiev regime was found to have been concealing traces of a military biological programme implemented with funding from the US Department of Defence. Documentation on the urgent eradication of highly hazardous pathogens of plague, anthrax, rabbit-fever, cholera and other lethal diseases on February 24 was received from employees of Ukrainian biolaboratories. This information proves that the claims we have repeatedly made with regard to the military biological activity of the United States and their allies in the post-Soviet space within the framework of the Biological Weapons Convention were justified. Meanwhile, the US itself shut down military-purpose biological research on its territory due to high risks it posed to American population.
2. Secondly, Russia is known as one of the most powerful countries in the world and so far possess superior weapons both in land, air and water. However, the war has been ongoing for nearly a month now and the Russian troops has not completely taken over the Ukraine’s capital. In this regard, I wonder why the Russian troops do not attack Ukraine with full capacity. Are there any specific purposes?
As I have already mentioned President Putin had decided to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people who had been suffering from the Kiev regime’s abuse and genocide for eight years. It is obvious that if Russia attacks Ukraine with full capacity, there will be many casualties among civilians. Our servicemen have a strict order to use only high-precision weapons to suppress the military infrastructure. Even the barracks with the Ukrainian military are not targeted.
Primarily Europe and the United States are trying to shut down Russian media and sources of information about the developments in Ukraine, the ongoing special military operation and the way the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian neo-Nazi battalions are treating civilians. There is a lot of information about provocations being prepared, including in Mariupol, Bucha and other places, where the Ukrainian militaries are trying to use civilians as human shields. Russia strongly condemns such actions.
As President Vladimir Putin repeatedly stated, we have invariably been respectful of the Ukrainian people, their language and traditions. We have no intention to encroach in any way on the interests of the citizens of Ukraine. We are bound with them by a common history, civilizational, spiritual and cultural affinity, as well as by bonds of blood and kinship. Today, Russia is a home to millions of people who were born in Ukraine.
3. Third, can you tell us what Russia wants from Ukraine during the peace negotiations in order to end the special operation?
The goals of the operation were stated clearly: to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide for the last eight years; to bring to court those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation; the demilitarisation of Ukraine, which means that no weapons that can pose a threat to Russia must be deployed there at any time; the denazification of Ukraine, which means to rid Ukrainian Society, Culture, Press, Economy, Judiciary and Politics of the Nazi ideology; and, of course, guarantees for Ukraine without its admission to NATO. Neutral status is being seriously discussed in a package with security guarantees. This is exactly what President Vladimir Putin said at one of his news conferences: there are multiple options out there, including any generally acceptable security guarantees for Ukraine and all other countries, including Russia, with the exception of NATO expansion.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators finished the 4th round of talks in Istanbul on 29 March. The head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky informed that the Russian side had received written proposals from the Ukrainian counterparts that include a ban on the production and deployment of weapons of mass destruction,
as well as a ban on the deployment of foreign military bases in Ukraine. Besides, Ukraine agreed to adopt a neutral and non-nuclear status with security guarantees, which in content and form should be similar to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. The Russian side decided to drastically reduce military activity toward Kiev and Chernigov. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described talks in Istanbul
as “positive” but emphasized that there is still a lot of work to be done.
4. Fourth, I have seen joint sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies, as well as hundreds of other private companies. I also believed that the such harsh sanctions can be a lesson for the other countries' leaders. Is Russia severely affected by these sanctions. Is Russia prepared for the sanctions?
A number of Western countries have introduced new restrictions against the Russian Federation because of Ukraine. We see that blackmail, intimidation, and threats are the only tools the Western policy has in its arsenal, trapped as it is in the stereotypes of a unipolar world and a false certainty that the United States still has the right and can impose its own global rules on everyone. This does not work with global powers, primarily Russia and other key international actors.
It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the United States and its allies committed many aggressive acts against Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, millions of innocent citizens died. But there was no condemnation of America, no sanctions were imposed, no questions of exclusion the USA from international organizations were raised. Is this the right approach? Our special military operation in terms of its goals and objectives is fundamentally different from aggression under the far-fetched pretexts of the United States and NATO.
Imposing sanctions for any reason, without any decisions of the UN Security Council is a typical US manner. According to presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the Western sanctions are very serious and Russia was preparing for them in advance.
We understand clearly that the new package of sanctions and restrictions against us would have followed in any development of events. Russian military operation in Ukraine is simply a pretext for the West to impose more sanctions.
It is not the first time we have faced sanctions. We have all the possibilities for own development. The Russian government has already taken decisions to support people and the economy reducing the use of the dollar in foreign exchange reserves and external settlements, switching to non-Western capital markets, and protecting investment projects from external negative influence. Moreover, Russia has many reliable partners not only in the post-Soviet space, but also in China, Southeast Asia, African countries. The results of this partnership and cooperation are quite evident.
At the same time, economic, financial, trade and other sanctions against Russia have backfired in Europe and in the United States where prices of gasoline, energy and food have shot up, and jobs in the industries associated with the Russian market have been cut. Western people are being persistently told that their current difficulties are the result of Russia’s hostile actions. It is a lie. The truth is that the problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elite of their respective countries, their mistakes, and short-sighted policies and ambitions. This elite is not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in Western countries. They are obsessed with their own self-serving interests and super profits.
The policy of containment, weakening of Russia, including via economic isolation and blockade is a deliberate, long-term strategy. We understand what kind of resource the West has, but it is still powerless against truth and justice. Russia will consistently bring its position to the attention of the whole world. Our position is honest and open, and more and more people hear, understand and share it.
