A top Russian diplomat, the head of mission to the United Nations in Geneva, has resigned in a damning letter that accuses President Vladimir Putin and his associates of attacking Ukraine “to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity.”
For two decades Boris Bondarev says he has worked in Russia’s foreign ministry, as The Daily Beast reports. In his letter, posted by the Executive Director of United Nations Watch (below) Bondarev adds:
“To achieve that [power] they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.”
UN Watch, an accredited non-governmental organization in Geneva, claims Bondarev has “defected.”
He singles out Sergey Lavrov, criticizing the Russian Foreign Minister for an increasing “level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry,” which he says have “become simply catastrophic.”
“Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysis and sober forecasting, there are propaganda clichés in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s. A system has been built that deceives itself.”
Lavrov is perhaps best-known to Americans as one of the top Russian diplomats present in the Oval Office in 2017 when then-President Donald Trump gave them code word classified top secret intelligence, putting Israeli spies at risk, while celebrating his firing of FBI Director Jim Comey.
“Today,” Bondarev says, “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country.”
Bondarev told the Associated Press: “Am I concerned about the possible reaction from Moscow? I have to be concerned about it.”
Image of Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov by United Nations Photo via Flickr and a CC license