Russian invasion of Ukraine: Ambassador Igor Romanchenko in Peru: It was not us who started

Igor Romanchenko, ambassador of the Russian Federation to Peru, gave an interview to the weekly Hildebrandt in his Thirteen to discuss his country's invasion of Ukraine, Western countries and what he expects from strategies diplomatic with Peru.

“That “we have started” is a very simplistic opinion, excuse me. I don't think it was us who started. Why? That's a topic. We are going to 2014, when Western countries orchestrated the coup d'état in Kiev, bringing to power the radical forces that openly supported Nazism and Russophobia. When Crimea succeeds in realizing its right to self-determination, other Ukrainian regions that spoke out against Kiev were subjected to pressure, economic blockade and violated their fundamental rights (...). A real massacre occurred on May 2, 2014, when Ukrainian nationalists burned 48 people alive in Odessa. This was filmed! Was anyone charged? I don't even ask if anyone was convicted, I'm just asking if anyone was accused,” said the political emissary.

Although the journalist replied that it had been seven years since 2014, Romanchenko replied that pressures had increased.

“There is NATO's advance towards the Russian borders. When the Berlin Wall fell everyone celebrated and our Western colleagues loudly declared that there would be no progress towards the Russian border of NATO. They said that they could not imagine it, that it was not necessary because there was no longer communism in Russia and that now we were all in favor of the private property that is ours... — what do you say? — our Sacred Lamb! Gorbachev believed them or pretended to believe them. I don't know. But then the NATO advance towards the borders began. Very smooth, in five stages, all with a smile and saying: “It's not against you, we put rockets in Poland, anti-ballistic missiles in case Iran can fire at us.” You have to take a balloon to see where Iran is and where Poland is. But they always with a smile moving forward, moving forward and moving forward. Now, the Baltic countries bordering Russia are full members of NATO. Bulgaria, Romania are members of NATO and the next one should be Ukraine,” he said.

The ambassador said they had warned Washington several times because they did not want to have “strategic weapons systems on the border with Russia,” however, in his words, they were never heard. “They always, with their smile, said that it was a right of the peoples to resolve the issue of security. Yes, it is one's right, but in the case of NATO it this is not so!” , he added.

For Romanchenko, the link between the European Union and Russia was broken long ago. “From a diplomatic point of view we are concerned... although the word worry is useless. We see the situation a little differently. We see that with these strong sanctions there is a kind of unity in Europe, but it has also been demonstrated that the international trade regime based on rules — not on international law, not on commercial law — no longer works, it doesn't work anymore. When 20 billion was stolen from Venezuela, there was a pretext: that Maduro was a drug trafficker... But in the case of Russia there was no pretext, they stole just like that,” he said.

AGGRESSION AGAINST

The journalist of the weekly Hildebrandt in his Thirteen questioned the Russian foreign minister about the invasion of Ukraine. However, the European ambassador stated that he did not agree with that vision and that it was only a “conflict”.

“Does this give them the right to put their hand in the participant's pocket? How is this? I don't understand it. And where is the sacred right of private property? And in this case it is not even private property, but it is state property. What is your argument? I don't like your foreign policy, so I can steal from you. Is that the logic? I don't understand. We see the same thing with the oligarchs. It's not that I like Mr. Viktor Velselberg, it's not like this. But I don't understand how, without trial, without court, without him being a criminal, they can steal a yacht that costs 90 million dollars. I can't think of it. And after they say they live in a rule of law,” he said.

Romanchenko did not respond if he believed that Western countries were going to defend Ukraine for the invasion of Vladimir Putin - something that later happened - but commented that it has been proven “that the international trading system will not be able to continue to function under the same regulations as before.”

“He showed that there is nothing sacred in the West. Private property was sacred before, now it is not. It used to be sacred to tell the truth, now it's not. It used to be sacred to comply with international law. Now, instead of law, rules are used. The question is: who invented them?” , he wondered.

LATIN AMERICA AND PERU

The ambassador of the Russian Federation to Peru said that the government of Vladimir Putin wants to have “friendship with Latin America” by recalling the Soviet Union's cooperation with various countries, especially with Peru. The weekly reporter questioned him that this happened more than 40 years ago, although the chancellor replied that at that time “trade was going very well”.

“This lasted every 1970s and all 80s (...) and mid-1990s. (...) 80% of the demand for batteries of the population of the Soviet Union, 250 million inhabitants, was covered by zinc supplies from Peru...”, he said.

Romanchenko did not share the view that the rise in the price of oil, fertilizers and basic foods is a phenomenon in Peru as a direct result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

“Oil prices rose, it's true; gas prices rose even higher, that's also true; there are going to be problems with fertilizers that Peru imports in a large part of Russia and with wheat (...) But why did all this happen? Not because there is a military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. This happened because countries in the West, first of all the United States but also England, imposed sanctions,” he said.

Later, he advised the Peruvian government that in order to get out of the economic crisis “private companies that distribute fertilizers here should buy directly from Russia, which would gladly sell them to Peru.”

“There is no limit, no difficulty. Even the Americans excluded fertilizers from their sanctions list. (...) Wheat will increase in price. What can we do here? We had to use the quota system in order not to allow prices to rise within Russia, but wheat was not something that Peru imported from Russia on a large scale,” he concluded.

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