Durban - Russia’s ambassador to South Africa, Mikhail Petrakov, has expressed his appreciation for the “balanced” response of South Africa to his country’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Petrakov addressed a press conference in Sandton on Thursday, defending Russia’s absorption of Crimea, which has provoked the biggest crisis in relations with the West since the Cold War.
He repeated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s line that after the overwhelming vote among Crimeans for annexation by Russia: “How could we move against?”
Petrakov insisted that Russia had had no designs on Crimea and had expressed the right of Ukrainians to make their own free choices about their future as the crisis in Ukraine unfolded. But Russia also expected its own interests to be taken into account. Moscow felt it would suffer if the proposed free trade area between the EU and Ukraine went ahead as this would have pushed cheap Ukrainian goods into the Russian market.
And Russia had also expressed its concern about possible Ukraine membership of Nato. These interests had not been taken into account, Petrakov said.
The unconstitutional toppling of the Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych – which amounted to a coup – by public protesters backed by the West had also been a factor. It had brought extremist, fascist, anti-Semitic elements into the Ukrainian government which caused alarm in Crimea.
Petrakov gave the assurance that Russia had no intention of moving further into eastern Ukraine – as some Western powers seem to fear – even though the Russian parliament had given Putin permission to do so.
He had been asked to comment on a statement by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation last Friday in which it expressed its concern about developments in Ukraine and called upon Russia and Ukraine “to engage in dialogue and co-operation” in the interest of the stability of the broader region.
“South Africa is of the view that the escalation of hostile language, the imposition of sanctions and counter-sanctions, the use of threat of force and violent actions do not contribute to the peaceful resolution of the situation and the economic stability of Ukraine and the region,” the statement said. - Independent Foreign Service
The Mercury