The response of the Ambassador of Russia to Albania A.Zaitsev to the accusations of the Russian diplomatic mission in Tirana of allegedly conducting a “disinformation” campaign
I have read with particular interest an article of the Director General of the Albanian Media and Information Agency Mr. Alteo Hysi dedicated to my interview to the information agency Ria-Novosti of 25.09.2024. The whole message of Mr. Hysi is that interview disseminates false information and is a part of Russian “propaganda machinery”. Since such an approach is fully unjustified, I decided to respond to some allegations.
First of all, it is a common practice for any head of a diplomatic mission to give interviews to news agencies. People may agree or disagree. That’s their right. Ambassador’s task is to provide his position.
Secondly, concerning the neocolonial ambitions of the US and the EU in the Balkans. Their interference in the internal affairs of Balkan states is obvious and sometimes even official. Mr. Hysi says that the US and the EU “continually encourage, promote and support the strengthening of democracies”. But we all know the democracies can be “strengthened” by different ways. For instance, by bombing states or by pushing countries to take sides forcing them to join sanctions that are harmful to their own economy.
Mr. Hysi mentions that Western sanctions are legal, but it is wrong: according to article 53 of the UN Charter only UN Security Council enforcement action can be considered as internationally binding (see: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text).
The author claims that “NATO’s goal is not to encircle or threaten Russians”. But NATO is not a cultural or educational organization. It’s a military alliance. What was the real purpose of its enlargement after the dissolution of the USSR and the Warsaw Treaty Organization? If Western counterparts had been concerned about a common security issue, they should have reinforced ties, for example, within the OSCE, instead of building security system that excluded certain countries.
In reality we see that all alliance’s resources and infrastructure are being mobilized to confront Russia. NATO's strategic concept, adopted at the Madrid summit in June 2022, declared Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area” (see: NATO 2022 strategic concept). Military exercises are regularly conducted near Russian borders. One of the most recent are the largest since the Cold War “Steadfast Defender 2024” coalition exercises, which were aimed at “repelling the Russian threat”.
As for the crises in Ukraine, it happened also because of the collapse of the common security system. By the way, back in December 2021 NATO and US were invited to sign with Russia two similar agreements on legaly binding security guarantees that would have opened a road to enduring peace on our continent. Moscow proposals were rejected with arrogance (see: NATO rejects Russian demands for security guarantees in latest round of talks). No negotiations took place.
As to the statement of Mr.Hysi that so-called sanctions cost Russia more than they cost Europe, let’s look at some figures. According to the IMF, in 2024, the GDP of the European Union will increase by no more than 1.1% (in 2023 – 0.6%; forecast for 2025 – 1.8%). The World Bank experts estimate this indicator for the eurozone at 0.7% in 2024, and 1.4% in 2025. According to the European Commission (EC), the main areas of economic activity of such countries as Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and France continue to stagnate steadily. The EC has to admit that it happens precisely due to the termination of energy cooperation with Russia, which made the EU's largest producers no longer competitive.
According to Eurostat, in January 2024, the volume of industrial production in the EU decreased by 2.1% compared to the previous month, and by 5.7% compared to January 2023. Eurostat estimates that the European Union has overpaid almost 200 billion euros for natural gas since the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions. On average around 15.2 billion euros per month are now spent on fuel purchases by Europeans, although in 2021 monthly expenses amounted to 6 billion euros. The energy crisis risks turning into deindustrialization of Europe.
Now about some issues of Russian citizens in Albania. Indeed, wise and hospitable people of Albania treat us as friends. Nevertheless, there were some cases when Russians have been denied, for instance, bank services based on their nationality.
Mr.Hysi quotes Albanian Prime Minister Mr. Edi Rama, who “supported the need for a dialogue as the best way to achieve peace” in Ukraine. I couldn’t agree more with this statement. The problem is that Mr. Zelensky signed himself a law prohibiting any negotiations with Russia. Who’s really rejecting dialogue and peace?
Besides – and coming back to neocolonial practices of the West and their dictate to other countries – Kiev was directly prohibited to sign Istanbul peace agreements in spring of 2022 by British premier Mr. Johnson, who persuaded the Kiev regime representatives to break off the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. This was personally admitted at the end of November 2023 by the leader of the parliamentary faction of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and the head of the Ukrainian delegation during the peace talks David Arahamiya. Here is his direct quote: “When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson arrived and said that we would not sign anything with them at all. Let's just fight”
And what role did Western democracies play when it came time to implement the Minsk Agreements adopted by UNSC in 2015? That was exactly the case of a legally binding norm of international law. The leadership of Ukraine and former senior officials from Germany and France, who participated in their creation, later admitted that they were not going to fulfill the Minsk Agreements and just fooled Donbass and Russia for one purpose - to win time and to build up military force. If at that time the Western states had played unbiased, the current crises wouldn’t have happened (see Reuters: Putin: Russia may have to make Ukraine deal one day, but partners cheated in the past).
I also cannot ignore an unsubstantiated attack on the Russian media, which, according to Mr. Hysi, is allegedly a “pillar of Russia’s propaganda and disinformation ecosystem”. Let me remind you with what enthusiasm the American establishment sought to block Donald Trump's official accounts in 2021 or to silence many other politicians and even ordinary people, whose opinion was in a conflict with what is usually accepted to describe as “mainstream”. Are they also Russian propagandists?
Finally, I hope that Mr.Hysi as a champion of promoting democracy and human rights will assist to publish my response on the same platforms – Shqiptarja.com and Albania Euronews, where he posted his text. It would be in conformity with international and European norms of freedom of speech and the fundamental right of every person to have free access to information.