LETTER: Keeping anti-Russian hysteria alive

We note the letter to Business Day by British high commissioner to SA Antony Phillipson (“Comparison by Russian embassy is absurd”, February 3).  

According to the UK diplomat, the Russian embassy’s initial letter “sought to compare the relationship between Britain and Wales with that between Ukraine and Russia” (“Allegations against Russia”, January 27).

We would like to draw readers’ attention to one important aspect: the point of the Russian embassy’s letter was not to compare the legal status of Wales and Ukraine, but to highlight the absurdity, hypocrisy and insolence of the UK foreign secretary’s claims of Russian “attempts” to install a “puppet regime” in Kyiv.

We can only interpret the high commissioner’s statement as an attempt to change the topic and distort the essence of our previous letter, because it seems his letter replies to anything you want, but not to the point we made about the logic of the foreign secretary’s claims.

Wales was picked as a mere example (as our letter clearly states) because of its proximity to London (historical and linguistic), and that’s all. We bring up our point again: first the West supports and approves an anticonstitutional coup in Ukraine (a country that borders Russia), then installs a pro-Western regime there, then turns a blind eye to the rise of neo-Nazism and the constant violation of the rights of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, and then the UK warns Russia against dethroning the Ukrainian government.

Absurd as it is, the UK itself makes up Russia’s “actions” and then warns Russia against doing something that London invented itself.

It is well known that overthrowing legitimate governments is the West’s “game”. But to keep the anti-Russian hysteria alive Washington, London and those who side with them keep coming up with most absurd and outrageous accusations against the Russian Federation. 

Alexander Arefiev 
Embassy of Russia in SA

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