Foreign Policy writes about the disgraceful fall of the once impressive diplomatic corps of the Russian Federation. The publicationʼs reporters spoke with eight Western officials who worked with Russian diplomats and with Boris Bondarev, the former representative of Russia to the United Nations in Geneva, who is currently the only diplomat who resigned due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the eve of February 24, high-ranking representatives of Russia in the West repeatedly denied suspicions of an attack on Ukraine, which means one of two things: either they were outright lying, or they were excluded from decision-making and knew nothing about the governmentʼs plans. The publication considers both of these options to be serious "sins of diplomacy". This means that Moscowʼs diplomatic corps ― once one of the toughest and most effective in Europe ― has turned into an empty place filled with propagandists and spies. Even the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, was once considered a shrewd and capable diplomat, whose approach to work was assertive and professional. Now he is only Putinʼs mouthpiece, a person who has no influence on foreign policy, writes the publication from the words of its interlocutors.
The Atlanticʼs Timothy McLaughlin writes about the 298 lives the Russians took when they shot down flight MH-17 in 2014. One of them is 25-year-old Australian Jack OʼBrien, who was returning home after a trip to Europe. His father now perceives that day ― July 17, 2014 ― as one of the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the death of their son, Jackʼs parents, Jon and Meryn, tried to understand the causes of the war, in particular, they turned to the Russian and Ukrainian churches near their home. The Ukrainians told about the long history of oppression by Russia, and the Russians presented a story about the connection between the two peoples. Much later, the OʼBriens learned about the Russian Buk installation and the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, which struck the plane. This year, Jon and Meryn marked the anniversary of the tragedy by protesting outside the Russian embassy in Canberra. Many Ukrainians joined them. Jon OʼBrien says one of the craziest experiences heʼs had since his sonʼs death has been the misinformation being spread by Moscow about the crash. For example, the Russian ambassador wrote to Jon that the plane was not shot down by a Russian missile, but by a bomb on board or a Ukrainian fighter jet. For the relatives of the victims, this constant lie became another trauma with a demoralizing and disorienting effect. Soon, the OʼBriens, along with many others, await the courtʼs decision, hoping that the verdict of the four suspects will help dispel the misinformation about MH-17.
Leonid Bershidsky, a Bloomberg columnist, in a recent essay compares Putin to Grigory Potemkin and Catherine the Great. Bershidsky recalls a story about fake "Potemkin villages" that the empressʼs lover built in the Kherson region in order to impress her. Whether this story is true or not, it has many parallels with what is happening today. The author compares Putin with Potemkin and Catherine ― because he simultaneously believes in an illusion and creates it in the war against Ukraine. However, after half a year of full-scale war, it becomes impossible to play both roles. Probably, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu assured Putin that the war would not last long and success was guaranteed. Now, according to the group of Russian investigators Istories, Shoigu has fallen out of favor, but he still does not give up and continues to assure Putin that Ukraine is about to break down and beg for peace. Also, the Russian dictator talks like Potemkin about the economy of the Russian Federation, assuring the "failure of Western sanctions" and building "Potemkin villages" with the help of selective economic data. So, the situation looks like either Putin does not know what is really happening, because he receives only the information he is ready to accept and his advisers constantly misinform him, or he is aware of everything and simply pretends that things are going according to plan. In any case, it is interesting how long the Russian people will believe in these illusions, Bershidsky wonders.