Russian UN Diplomat Affirms How the West Betrayed Russia After the End of the Cold War

Dec. 29, 2021 (EIRNS)—Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy charged during his monthly press conference in New York yesterday that the West betrayed Russia after the end of the Cold War. “Everybody was thinking that people in the West were our friends, that they really were giving us a hand and that we would live in some better place, a better world and nobody would ever remember about the Cold War, about East and West,” he described for the media. 

“But eventually things have gone other way very quickly.... Very soon we saw that the intentions of our colleagues were not as innocent as it had been presented at the beginning. We saw a lot of Americans and Europeans exploiting our country, trying to split it, crush it, split Russia further, promote separatism in Russia, promote divisions between Russia and the newly emerged states.”

He went on to say that the first 10 years of the Russian Federation’s history were “very difficult, very challenging,” and the country was “really on the brink of collapse.” However, “the moment we ... restored our national pride and our national capacity to live as independent states, the West and the United States started to perceive us as a threat. Now we have kind of a remake of the Cold War, Cold War 2.0.,” Polyanskiy said.

Polyanskiy explained how

“we are really very much puzzled, as the reasons for the East and West confrontation are no longer there. There is no ideology. There is no communist ideology that Russia or anybody else promotes. Our economic structure is very close to that of the United States or any other Western country, but confrontation is there, and the efforts to portray Russia as an enemy are also there. Of course, it brings you to some conclusions that the question was not of ideology, but of geopolitical struggle, which has reemerged right now,”

he said.

Replying to another question, Polyanskiy remarked: “As for the alleged threats of Russia invading Ukraine, I think this problem can be solved very easily. It was born in the heads of some politicians; therefore it should die in the heads of those same politicians. It only takes a change of attitude, because there is nothing happening on the ground that would justify the position of Western politicians....

“We underline that this is our sovereign territory and we have the right to place and move our troops, conduct exercises. This is our right.... And despite all the allegations of this kind, there has been no significant military activity. So the answer is very simple. Just ask those who are promoting this news to calm down,”

Polyanskiy concluded.