LETTER: Allegations against Russia

We note the widespread allegations against Russia — initiated by the UK and reflected, among others, on the pages of Business Day — of plans to establish a puppet regime in Kiev (“UK warns Russia of severe sanctions if it installs Ukraine ‘puppet regime’ ”, January 23).

British foreign secretary Elizabeth Truss said on Twitter that the UK “will not tolerate [a] Kremlin plot to install pro-Russian leadership in Ukraine”, while British deputy prime minister Dominic Raab yet again warned of “never-seen-before-sanctions-from-hell” should Russia attempt to do so.

The British foreign office declined to provide evidence to back its accusations. Interestingly, the authors of the said propaganda piece named Yevgeny Murayev as Moscow’s potential candidate to head the pro-Russian leadership.

The thing is Murayev has been under Russian sanctions since 2018. Murayev himself is of the opinion that someone clueless about the Russia-Ukraine situation “set up” the foreign office by providing false information on “pro-Russian” politicians in Kiev.

Actually, the aforementioned government officials should count their blessings that most of the world does not aim to adopt “best” Anglo-Saxon foreign policy practices. Otherwise one of the UK’s “grateful” counterparts would have organised a state coup in Wales, for example, deployed military advisers and special services there and pumped it with arms, while the “puppet regime” would have unleashed ferocious anti-English propaganda and prohibited the use of the English language in its territory.

Against this backdrop, what would London have said upon receipt of a warning not to even think of “installing [a] pro-British government” in Cardiff?

Alexander Arefiev
Embassy of Russia in SA

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