March 29, 2024

There is no doubt that coronavirus outbreak has led to unprecedented worldwide crisis, in addition to existing problems. The last three months were illustrative considering the foreign policy of Russian Federation. Russia has taken advantage of the pandemic as an instrument of manipulation to realize its geopolitical claims.
Under the pretext of fight against the coronavirus, the Kremlin provided humanitarian aid to large number of foreign countries, in exchange for political support. After Italy received humanitarian aid from Russia, a deputy of Russian State Duma Leonid Slutsky wrote a letter to Italian politician Vito Petrocelli asking for a favour – to influence the European community and assist in reaching an arrangement towards sanctions lifting. Russia also managed to gain “voices” on the issue in the UN: in the context of the worldwide crisis, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for lifting of sanctions imposed against Russia.
However, complaining about the pandemic and urging to consolidate in order to defeat the disease, Russia at the same time keeps exacerbate military conflict in the east of Ukraine (in self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republic, DPR and LPR respectively). Compared with the previous year, the amount of daily shelling has risen. Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevicius mentioned that, escalating aggression, the Kremlin tries to hide the fact of its direct involvement in the military conflict and by all means – to pretend being a mediator in settlement of the conflict. Alluding to the pandemic and the necessity to lift sanctions, Russia attempts to distracts attention from the facts of violation of international agreements for its part.
Since Russian invasion of Donbass, Ukrainian legislative and executive administrative institutions were terminated and replaced by pro-Russian occupational administration. To implement the Kremlin policy, Russian citizens occupy crucial administrative posts in so called “people’s republics”. At the recent meeting of Forum for Security Co-operation Ukraine exposed names of these people. For instance, Vladimir Pashkov – since 2019 a deputy prime minister of DPR, was born in Irkutsk region. From 1993 to 2014 he was a government official in Russia; today Pashkov has Russian citizenship. The post of the head of the central election commission of self-proclaimed republic belongs to Olga Pozdnyakova, born in Rostov city, Russia; meanwhile, a member of Russian ruling party United Russia (“Edinaya Rossia”). Yana Chausova, appointed as a minister of finance, was also born in Russia and in 2012 participated Kurchatov City Council elections. The facts of the appointment of Russian citizens on administrative posts in secessionist republics refute the argument the Kremlin uses, claiming that Russia is not involved in the military conflict in the east of Ukraine, and prove that it is not a civil war but a military aggression resulted in the annexation of the territory (Crimea peninsula) by Russia and the creation of puppet regimes (DPR/LPR) in the east of Ukraine. Manipulation of concepts is an element of hybrid warfare that essentially changes the perception of general situation. Confidently using this method, Russia attempts to introduce its own citizens to participate in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) to represent interests of self-proclaimed republics during negotiations on fostering peace in the east of Ukraine.
In the wake of the facts confirming Russian participation in the military conflict, it becomes more difficult for the Kremlin to pretend neutrality. British research agency Forensic Architecture investigated the battle of Ilovaisk, that took place in August-September 2014 on the territory of Ukraine near the border with Russia. There is a lot of information in the opened sources proving the involvement of Russian armed forces in the military conflict in Ukraine on the side of separatists. The agency managed to gather the evidence of presence of about 300 Russian military vehicles in the battle zone. Moreover, in June, after three-month break, the trial over the downing of MH17 jet is to be continued. Three of four defendants are also Russian citizens, and conclusions made by Bellingcat and CORRECT!V, British and German investigative teams, confirmed that the missile system that has fired the jet belongs to 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of Russian Federation. Despite the Kremlin desperately refutes the facts and carries “humanitarian” campaigns accompanied with propaganda, actions speak louder than words.

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