Diplomats Of Russia

"Boris Bondarev is a hero."

"The invasion of Ukraine made it impossible to deny just how brutal and repressive Russia had become. It was an unspeakable act of cruelty, designed to subjugate a neighbor and erase its ethnic identity. It gave Moscow an excuse to crush any domestic opposition. Now, the government is sending thousands upon thousands of drafted men to go kill Ukrainians. The war shows that Russia is no longer just dictatorial and aggressive; it has become a fascist state."

"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 February 24 this year. The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospect for a prosperous free society in our country."

"Putin has failed in his bid to conquer Ukraine, an initiative that he might have understood would be impossible if his government had been designed to give honest assessments."

"The Ukraine that you and I had known, within the borders that used to be, no longer exists, and will never exist again. This is evident."

"YouTube has signed its own warrant."

"Who are the masters of provocation? Of course the United States and NATO."

"We noticed the unprecedented campaign launched in Greece to defame Russia’s policy. Senior officials in Athens allow themselves to make crude accusations against our country and its leadership, they are literally competing with their like-minded people. They hypocritically speak of an “unprovoked attack” against Ukraine, for the first time since World War II, a “mass invasion” and so on."

"Even cookery books, they were also banned. Why? Because it was impossible to share borscht. Well, you can't. It should only belong to one person. To some one people, one nationality ... And so that it is common? And so that in every city and in every region every housewife could cook it in her own way? No. They don't want to compromise. So this is what we are talking about: xenophobia, Nazism, extremism in all forms..."

"Let me speak or you will really hear what Russian missiles sound like!"

"I would like to warn Washington and Brussels that any aggressive actions against Crimea are not only doomed to fail, but will also be met with a devastating revenge strike."

"The European Parliament has passed a resolution recognising Russia as a "sponsor of terrorism". I propose that the European Parliament be recognised as a sponsor of idiocy."

"It is well known to everyone that the Russian armed forces do not bomb cities."

"The Russian Armed Forces are carrying out precision strikes against military targets and are going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties."

"We are not responsible for the lives of our citizens who have opted to take part in illegal armed activities in Ukraine. Any armed activities against Russian forces will be immediately stopped and armed groups of foreign mercenaries will be eliminated."

"These terrible, criminal fake (images) were published in order to justify another pre-arranged sanctions package, including a large-scale expulsion of diplomats from different countries."

"This is no longer Russophobia, it's a perversion on a level I can't even name."

"The Crimean Bridge is once again in the crosshairs."

"Western media are in a state that can be called obsession bordering on complete madness: For three years they talked about Russia’s isolation, and today they saw the red carpet used to welcome the Russian president in the USA."

"Here’s Maria Zakharova, who, in essence, has a strong aversion towards Jews and openly opposes Israel, without any attempt to conceal it. Another woman who drinks heavily, yet she serves as a spokesperson for our Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

"We have no laws to stop this."

"I have no detailed information about what soldiers you are talking about."

"We have issued all our warnings both publicly and through bilateral channels. They [Sweden and Finland] know about it, they will have nothing to be surprised about, they were informed about everything, what will it lead to."

"Any Danish move to restrict the freedom of navigation of Russian ships in the Baltic straits will be seen as a hostile act and draw retaliation."

"To justify their aggressive aspirations, representatives of the North Atlantic bloc are deliberately fueling hysteria around an imaginary Russian ‘threat’, including actively spreading insinuations about Russia’s plans to attack the organization’s member states."

"Ukraine has become the global centre of Nazism, and this issue goes far beyond Eastern Europe. All reasonable anti-fascist and anti-Nazi forces must work together to ensure that the broader society learns the truth."

"We categorically deny any accusations."

"We have significant losses of troops and it is a huge tragedy for us."

"The West is an oasis for criminals from Russia."

"The situation is undoubtedly serious and we would ask that many international leaders not rush with their statements, not rush with their baseless accusations, request information from different sources, and at least listen to our explanations."

"From the very beginning of these special operations, Russian military had a very strict order from the chief commander not to aim at civilian targets. And they are not doing that. They are not shelling houses. They are not shelling apartments. They are not shelling civil objects. They are only shelling and they're aiming of military infrastructure, in the context of one of the main goals of the operation, demilitarization of Ukraine. Then who is ruining the infrastructure, the civil infrastructure of Mariupol, for example? Those Nazi battalions inside Mariupol, they're simply killing those who would like to escape from the city. And these Nazi battalions, they are using the apartments as a shelter for their guns, for their armaments, for their tanks, for their snipers. That is causing the reciprocal fire. So, it is not Russian military who are doing that."

"Ukraine is a very difficult country, very difficult for us. In its current state it is hostile towards us."

"We are in fact now living in the conditions of a perfect storm and the moment of truth, that very storm and moment of truth that will ensure and protect our interests, and make it so that your lives are better, more comfortable, more stable, and more secure."

"The strategic goal is to clear up the Mariupol from nationalistic regiments who are there in a heavily-covered environment, and so, by the way they're simply not letting people out from this thing, from the town. And this is a problem, because now we're receiving lots of refugees coming from there, and they simply tell us that they were used like a shield. They were used under heavy bombardment, and then those nationalists, they were, they were killing people who would want to leave the city. And now the main goal is to get rid of those bad guys there."

"Also to ensure that Ukraine acknowledges the fact that Crimea is also an untakable part of Russia, and that People's Republic of Luhansk and Donetsk are independent states. Ukraine has lost them after the coup that happened in 2014."

"Russian soldiers are not shooting at civilians. They’re not attacking them but helping them."

"We are speaking of a special military operation that is going on, and it is going strictly in accordance with the plans, and there were purposes, they were established in beforehand of course. First, I think we have to speak about the reasons for this operation. I mean, because speaking of the morale against, in the morale against, among our military. Of course you operate data and information coming from different media and from your intelligence. But you would probably have to doubt it, and you have to think twice whether it is true or not."

"Many people show themselves to be what we in Russia like to call traitors. They disappear from our lives on their own. Some resign from their jobs, some withdraw from their professional lives, and some leave the country and move to other places. That’s how the purification happens."

"No one would think from the very beginning about a couple of days. It's a serious operation with serious purposes. And I think if we try to remember those purposes, those main goals of the operation, it is to get rid of the military potential of Ukraine, and this is why our military is targeting only military objects on the territory of Ukraine. Not civil ones. Russia military are not hitting civilian aims, civil targets. Number two, it is to ensure that Ukraine changes from entire Russian centered to a neutral country. And in this sense, let's remember that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the neutral status fixed with us in the declaration of independence of the country. Three, to get rid of the nationalist battalions and regiments who are opposing Russian troops, who are now trying to cover themselves under the shield of civilians, thus paving a way for civil casualties."

"We do not accept the jurisdiction of ICC [International criminal court of justice]. We did not — we did not acknowledge it before, and we do not accept it right now. And we are not going to accept it further."

"Our president knows where he is leading our country."

"Peskov has been one of the key implementers of the Kremlin’s standard disinformation playbook of denial, lies, and obfuscation."

"Dmitri Peskov has served as Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson since 2008. In this capacity, he has played a key role in propaganda and disinformation campaigns to cover up the Kremlin’s links to the 2006 polonium poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, the 2018 Novichok poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skirpal and his daughter Yulia, and the 2020 Novichok poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In all these cases, official and independent sources have debunked the Kremlin’s disinformation and established the Kremlin’s direct responsibility. Serving Putin has been lucrative for Peskov, and despite being a civil servant for his entire career, he and his family are now multimillionaires."

"Before Putin launched his unprovoked and brutal war of choice against Ukraine, Peskov repeatedly denied Russia had any intentions to invade its neighbor. He falsely asserted that Russia did not pose a threat to Ukraine, that Russia had never attacked any other nation, and that Russia would be the “last country in Europe” to think about starting a war. Attempting to discredit Western media reports that exposed the Kremlin’s invasion preparations, Peskov called them “provocations,” an “unfounded fomenting of tension,” “Western hysteria,” “irresponsible fakes,” and “maniacal information insanity.” Russia’s war in Ukraine validated the media reports and undermined Peskov’s credibility."

"If a Russian spokesman (e.g. Dmitri Peskov) must be cited, it must be mentioned that this specific figure has lied about every aspect of this war since it began. This is context. Readers picking up the story in the middle need to know such background."

"Although elections are a requirement of democracy and Putin himself has decided to hold them, theoretically it’s possible not to hold them, Because it’s already obvious that Putin will be elected."

"Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets."

"A real Russian is never ashamed to be Russian."

"Right now, everyone is very emotional about what’s going on. And you know what? The overwhelming majority are those who support the president emotionally. There are so many people who want to support the president — not just emotionally, but also in their actions. They’re the overwhelming majority."

"We just want to control all the land we have now written into our constitution as ours."