Special Military Operation: Outlining the Russian position

By Marat Pavlov Russian Ambassador to the Philippines

The past year since the beginning of the Special Military Operation has destroyed many illusions that all sides of the conflict had. According to the results of the year of the SMO, it can be stated that in fact Russia found itself in a state of war—not only with Ukraine (primarily as a regime, not a people, hence the demand for political denazification), but also with the “collective West,” that is, in fact, with the Nato bloc. As it was emphasized in the Address to the Federal Assembly by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, (February 21, 2023) “they were the ones who started this war, while we used force and are using it to stop the war.”

I would like to recall how it all started. In 2014 an anti-constitutional armed coup d’état orchestrated by the West took place in Kiev. Radical nationalists who did not hide their Russophobia and aggressive anti-Russian plans were brought to power. The bloody putsch was followed by political chaos, legal nihilism and rampant ultranationalism and Nazism in the country. Starting from 2014, people of Donbass fought, defended the right to live on their own land, speak its native language, fought and did not give up in the conditions of the blockade and constant shelling, undisguised hatred from the Kiev regime. Russia was doing everything in its power to solve this problem by peaceful means. In the meantime the promises of Western leaders, their assurances that they were striving for peace in Donbass turned out to be outright lies. Today they openly admit that the Minsk Agreements and the Normandy Format were just a diplomatic show and a bluff (the same can be said about NATO’s promise not to expand to the East). They were simply marking time, engaged in political chicanery, turning a blind eye to the Kiev regime’s political assassinations and reprisals against undesirable people, their mistreatment of Orthodox Christian believers. They increasingly incited the Ukrainian neo-Nazis to stage terrorist attacks in Donbass. The officers of nationalist battalions trained at Western academies and schools. Weapons were also supplied.

Prior to the special military operation, Kiev held negotiations with the West about the delivery of air-de- fense systems, warplanes and other heavy equipment to Ukraine. We also recall the Kiev regime’s vain attempts to obtain nuclear weapons; they discussed this issue publicly.

The United States and Nato quickly deployed their army bases and secret biological laboratories near Russian borders. They mastered the future theater of war during war games, and they prepared the Kiev regime, which they controlled, and Ukraine, which they had enslaved, for a largescale war.

In December 2021, we officially submitted draft agreements on security guarantees to the USA and NATO. In essence, all key, fundamental points were rejected. Judging by the information Russia received, there was no doubt that everything would be in place by February 2022 for launching yet another bloody punitive operation in Donbass. The launch of the SMO was the only adequate response to that situation.

Russia proceeds from the fact that it is defending its home, its sovereignty, its right to exist while the West seeks unlimited power and is arming the Kiev regime. It has already spent over $150 billion on helping and arming the Kiev regime. To give you an idea, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the G-7 countries earmarked about $60 billion in 2020–2021 to help the world’s poorest countries. What about all this talk of fighting poverty, sustainable development and protection of the environment?

So the illusions have been dispelled. To force Russia to reconsider its positions and decisions on the ac- cession of new territories as a result of legal referendums failed. Russian society has been consolidating in the face of a distinct, both military and ultraliberal-value threat, actively imposed by the West, aimed at the “strategic defeat” of Russia and undermining the spiritual and moral foundations of its existence.

The hopes of the West for the effectiveness of the avalanche of sanctions against Russia and its almost complete cutting off from that part of the world economy, politics, diplomacy, which is controlled by the United States and its allies, have been dashed. The Russian economy persevered. Some predicted that it would shrink by 20 to 25 percent. However, in 2022, the GDP declined by 2.1 percent, according to the latest data. The share of the Russian ruble in our international settlements has doubled as compared to December 2021, reaching one third of the total, and including the currencies of the friendly countries, it exceeds half of all transactions.

After a year of war in Ukraine, it is quite obvious that Russia cannot lose in it. This is an existential challenge for us: to be or not to be as a country, a state, a people. This is not about acquiring disputed territories or balancing security. Russia cannot lose, because crossing this red line brings us back to the subject of the nuclear Apocalypse.

In this regard I would also like to comment the suspension of the Russian membership in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) announced by President Vladimir Putin in his Address.

We see that the anti-Russian consolidation of the Western powers is gradually acquiring a nuclear dimension. Nato positions itself as a “nuclear alliance” and continues to develop so-called “joint nuclear missions.” They openly come out with a unified position regarding nuclear issues as it was clearly demonstrated by the US allies in Nato with regard to START. The combined capabilities (particularly of the US, UK and France) of nuclear weapon States to pose threats to Russia should be taken into account during consideration of the Treaty’s future and the conservation of the strategic stability and on the international security.

With regard to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the Russian Side would like to highlight that it is a part of the Treaty, and it was among its initiators, having ratified the document as early as in 2000. Moreover, Russia has been adhering to the self-imposed nuclear test moratorium starting 1991. Contrary to Russia, the US has not ratified the CTBT until now, and shows no intention to do so. It is the main country, whose approach has become an obstacle for the CTBT to enter into force.

I would like to emphasize that Russia is not withdrawing from the CTBT, neither it is resuming its nuclear weapons test activities. But if the US makes a decision in favor of conducting a nuclear arms test, it will not remain unanswered. It also should be taken into account that the longer the range of the Western systems that will be supplied to Ukraine, the further we will have to move the threat away from our borders.

We are also witnessing the growing tension in the Asia-Pacific region and Nato attempts to transfer blocktype mentality to Asian soil. But I believe that the Ukrainian crisis can teach us all a lot in terms of maintaining sovereignty. Russia, having consolidated its sovereignty over several decades, has been firm in its determination to build a multipolar world. The situation with the conflict in Ukraine only confirmed that there can be no alternative to such a world order. We see the presence of a wide range of friendly like-minded countries, including China, India, the countries of the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, Asean who share our desire for an equal, mutually respectful and mutually beneficial dialogue as opposed to the “rulesbased order” promoted by the West, invented and dictated exclusively by Washington and its henchmen.

I sincerely hope that outlining the Russian position in this article will help Philippine readers bewildered by western influential mass media to take a more objective look at the current global situation.

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