By the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Pretoria
On 12 June we mark Russia’s National Day. One might say that this year we welcome our national holiday amid “unprecedented” challenges, in a turbulent international environment. While there is certainly some truth to that, we would like to point out that times of changes are also times of opportunities.
What we are saying is that the multipolar world is emerging and this process is already an objective reality. The era of centuries-long Western dominance is getting blown away with the wind of change, making way for something new and better.
A multipolar world that is based on the rule of international law (not “rules-based order” with the so-called “rules” that get constantly rewritten to benefit the West) and principles of mutual respect, sovereignty and equality of states. The unprecedented anti-Russian campaign, launched by the West, is nothing but an evident attempt to preserve the unipolar system and the West's privileged position in the international arena. A position which it has been abusing for a very long time, in particular, to redistribute the world product in its favour.
The current level of Russophobia together with de-facto abandoning of the values that the West was constantly swearing loyalty to (pluralism of opinions, freedom of speech, rule of law, inviolability of private property, etc.) – all this give us an irrefutable proof that the West will stop at nothing to achieve its goal, even at supporting a clearly neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine that has been waging war against innocent people of Donbass.
Russia came to stop that war. To stop the genocide and eliminate the threat coming from Ukrainian soil which NATO planned to turn into a foothold against Russia.
As we said before on numerous occasions, it was a forced move. Russia had to come to rescue, since nobody in the so-called “civilized” and “progressive” West was listening to cries for help coming from Donetsk and Lugansk. The West had 8 years to stop the Kiev regime’s atrocities and put an end to human sufferings yet it did nothing. Russia, after exhausting every opportunity to resolve the situation around Ukraine diplomatically, was left with no other choice.
Now the Western countries accuse Russia of war crimes. The same Western countries that destroyed Yugoslavia & Libya, that watched silently as Washington destroyed Iraq, killing over a million civilians there, now pose themselves as paragons of truth and justice. Yet there is no truth and justice in what they do: supplying Nazi Kiev regime with weapons (thus prolonging the conflict) and promoting outright racism and hatred against Russians.
There can be nothing right about siding with Nazism and nurturing it. We know what happened last time when Europe appeased the Nazis – the most destructive war in the history of humankind. The Soviet Union paid an enormous price to put Nazism to the scrapyard of history – we lost almost 27 million of our compatriots.
That is another reason why we have very low tolerance towards Nazism and racism thriving in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. Unopposed Nazism equals global war and if such a war begins, there is no telling if it’s not going to be the last war in the history of human civilization.
This, in a nutshell, is our turbulent present, yet there is hope for a much calmer and brighter future. Despite the attempts of the collective West to make things look like Russia is “isolated”, our country is open and ready to cooperate with every country that wishes to do so on the basis of mutual respect, understanding and taking into account the interests of each other.
Our international ties grow stronger, including those within various international fora such as BRICS, SCO, CSTO, EAEU and others. We are confident that together we can build a better world that rests on the universally acknowledged international norms and not some “rules” invented by a small group of countries on an ad hoc basis. A world without ideology of racial supremacy and double standards. Though today this future may seem remote, it’s closer than it seems and we welcome everyone to join forces to bring this future to reality.
So how do we see Russia on its national day in 2022?
As a strong, sovereign state which protects its national interests and its people, despite unprecedented pressure from Washington and its satellites. Russia is a country that fights Nazism in Ukraine, like our ancestors, during the Great Patriotic War. So, yes, we welcome 12 June, Russia’s National Day, as a new milestone in the history of the statehood of Russia.