I appreciate having the opportunity to say a few words about the Ukrainian crisis and to present our point of view on what is happening.
Especially while there are too many information and disinformation from the Western media in Malaysia.
Too much Western narrative here. Having such a mainstream, sensible and neutral attempts of local experts objectively evaluate the situation are almost invisible.
As a result, Russia-Nato rivalry was "rebranded" to "Russia-Ukraine conflict".
While the West accuses us of "starting the war", the special military operation in fact is an attempt to stop the Ukrainian civil war ignited by Kiev regime in 2014 and cost thousands of lives of the Russian-speaking citizens in this country.
The Western media do not report about confessions of Angela Merkel and François Hollande that, acting as the mediators, they set a main goal not to stop the civil war in Ukraine, but to gain time to equip Ukraine with Nato weapons and to strike at Russia.
Recently, the Secretary General of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg with the simplicity of a child (as Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov has aptly noted) confirmed, that Nato had started preparing for war by bringing Nazis to power in Kiev in 2014.
At the same time, there are many speculations of "atrocity" of the Russian Armed Forces, and absolutely nothing is reported about shelling civilians in Donetsk and Luhansk not to mention executions and tortures of the captured Russian soldiers.
There is many pictures of ruined buildings in Ukraine, and no word that they were shelters for the Ukrainian forces and their foreign fighters.
Nato says, it is not in the war with Russia while providing its heavy weapons to Kiev and training Ukrainian combatants – how could it be considered as a non-involvement?
This is a kind of deepest involvement.
Moreover, the US and the EU blame Russia for destruction of supply chains and for food security issues. Deliberately ignoring that all of these troubles were brought by illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the West.
These sanctions were aimed at Russia but have harmed the whole world, including Malaysia.
Russia is one of the leading supplier of agricultural products, fertilizers, timber, oil, gas and other mineral resources, high technologies and solutions, and so on, and so forth.
However, international transportation, logistics, insurance, money transactions are mostly under the Western control.
The West uses these tools for blocking the trade of other countries with Russia.
It implements some exemptions for certain goods from Russia and Belorussia that are needed to the US and its allies, but doesn't allow to do the same for developing nations and for the South as a whole that have high demand of food and other commodities.
Malaysia prioritizes its sustainable national development, safety and wellbeing of Malaysians. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Government, the Opposition, the people of this country think not only about the recent developments, but – primarily – about the future of Malaysia.
I strongly believe that this is the right choice. It is the same with Russia.
I am convinced that our countries both do not want to be narrow-minded. We do our best trying to avoid to be trapped in the current moment. We have been thinking openly and globally, looking toward the future and beyond.
Russia and Malaysia have a lot to do together, to complement each other, and this is mutually beneficial. It brings us much closer.
Moreover, it makes us more confident that, staying alongside, our countries will continue to develop and prosper.
• The writer is the Ambassador of Russia to Malaysia
