A veteran Russian diplomat to the UN Office at Geneva says he handed in his resignation earlier than sending out a scathing letter to overseas colleagues inveighing in opposition to the “aggressive war unleashed” by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
Boris Bondarev, 41, confirmed his resignation in a letter delivered Monday morning on the Russian diplomatic mission after a diplomatic official handed on his English-language assertion to The Associated Press.
“For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24 of this year,” he wrote, alluding to the date of Russia’s invasion.
Reached by cellphone, Bondarev – a diplomatic counselor who has targeted on Russia’s position within the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva after postings in locations like Cambodia and Mongolia – confirmed he handed in his resignation in a letter addressed to Ambassador Gennady Gatilov.
A spokesman for the mission didn’t instantly reply to calls and a textual content message from the AP searching for remark.
The resignation quantities to a uncommon — if not unprecedented — public admission of disgruntlement about Russia’s warfare in Ukraine among the many Russian diplomatic corps, at a time when Putin’s authorities has sought to crack down on dissent over the invasion and sought to quell conflicting narratives from the federal government line about how the “special military operation” — because it’s formally identified in Russia — is continuing.
“It is intolerable what my government is doing now,” Bondarev informed the AP. “As a civil servant, I have to carry a share of responsibility for that, and I don’t want to do that.” Bondarev stated he had not obtained any response but from Russian officers, however added: “Am I concerned about the possible reaction from Moscow? I have to be concerned about it.” Asked if some colleagues felt the identical, he added: “Not all Russian diplomats are warmongering. They are reasonable, but they have to keep their mouths shut.” He advised his case might develop into an instance.
“If my case is prosecuted, then if other people want to follow, they would not,” he advised.
In his English-language assertion, which he stated he emailed to about 40 diplomats and others, Bondarev stated those that conceived the warfare “want only one thing — 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.” He railed in opposition to the rising “lies and unprofessionalism” within the Russian Foreign Ministry and took specific goal at Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who he stated in“18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual … to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world (that is, Russia too) with nuclear weapons!” “Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred.” Bondarev informed the AP that he had no plans to go away Geneva.
Hiller Neuer, govt director of the advocacy group UN Watch, stated merely: “Boris Bondarev is a hero.” “Bondarev should be invited to speak in Davos this week,” he added, “and the U.S., the U.K. and the EU should lead the free world in creating a program to encourage more Russian diplomats to follow and defect, by providing protection, financial security and resettlement for diplomats and their families.”