Comment by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the State of Israel
We took notice of the statements made by Ambassador of France to Israel Mr. Eric Danon during the discussion held at the 16th Annual International Conference of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) on March 1.
In particular, while proclaiming well-known anti-Russian clichés, Mr. Danon suddenly admitted that in 1989 and 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev was given clear verbal guarantees that NATO would not expand at the expense of “some countries of the Eastern Bloc”. He emphasized that he could say that personally, as he “was in the room at the moment as staff of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and “wrote it”. At the same time, he expressed the opinion that the violation of the promises made to the Russian side allegedly does not mean that the Alliance bears responsibility for the Ukrainian crisis and cannot serve as an excuse for the “narrative of Putin” about the start of a special military operation.
For our part, let us recall that Russia has repeatedly and directly stated that the approach of NATO's military infrastructure close to the Russian borders will be regarded as a direct threat to our national security. We also warned about the inadmissibility of military development by the collective West of the territory of neighboring Ukraine, contrary to all the agreements, the existence of which has now been confirmed by the Ambassador of France. As is known, in fact, the fundamental concerns of the sovereign Russian state were stubbornly ignored by the countries of the Alliance. We regard the words of Mr. Danon, coupled with numerous documented facts, as yet another proof of the unscrupulousness of the Western countries' policy of double standards, as well as evidence of the failure of any speculations and attempts by our former Western partners to arrogantly, shamelessly deny the obvious.
As for the situation in Ukraine, the facts and figures speak for themselves. All of them are well known. With the direct participation of NATO advisers, a direct militarization of this country took place for several years: military bases and biological laboratories were created on its territory, military exercises were conducted, and thousands of foreign military personnel were quartered. Not to mention the ongoing pumping of the Kiev regime with Western weapons, from the use of which Ukrainian Nazis and nationalists kill civilians. That makes the NATO countries, in fact, accomplices in these crimes.
Today, the West prefers not to remember the end of 2021 and Russia’s proposals cynically rejected by Western “partners” at the time to provide legal security guarantees, including the return of NATO’s military infrastructure to the configuration of 1997, when the Russia-NATO Founding Act was signed. It is worth recalling the revelations of the former leaders of Ukraine and Western countries, including France, who leave no doubt that under the guise of the Minsk Agreements approved by the UN Security Council, they purposefully prepared Ukraine for a war against Russia in an attempt to geopolitically contain and weaken our country. The other day NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also made a “confessional statement”, which, in particular, confirmed that “the war didn’t start in February last year, it started in 2014”.
Against this background, the outworn statements of Western countries' representatives accusing Russia of “unprovoked aggression”, allegedly dictated by “just a desire to come to Ukraine and seize it”, are in its essence hypocritical, do not stand up to criticism and are intended only to wrap up the truth, which is inconvenient for Western countries.
