As in case with the Budapest Memorandum where Russia resorted to its own selective reading of the obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, today we can see the same with regard to the text of the Minsk Agreements.

We are ready to provide our Russian colleagues based in London the document agreed on February 12, 2015, which is called “Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements”. There are no guarantors, sponsors or patrons, but signatories acting as Participants of the Trilateral Contact Group: Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, Second President of Ukraine L.Kuchma, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Ukraine M.Zurabov, A.Zakharchenko and I.Plotnitski. Full stop.

On the other hand, while we are not hiding from our internal challenges, it is quite amusing if not comical to read the Press-Secretary’s confected stories about lack of freedom of media and political assassinations in Ukraine from an official representative of a country which has turned human rights violations, media freedom restrictions and political prosecutions into everyday practice.

But not to talk to the winds let us remind of:

• Human Rights Watch 2015 Report which says that the Kremlin took another leap backward in 2014 by intensifying its crackdown on civil society, media, and the Internet, as it sought to control the narrative about developments in Ukraine, including Russia’s occupation of Crimea and its support to insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Parliament adopted laws, and authorities engaged in practices, that increasingly isolated the country and inflamed a level of anti-Western hysteria unseen since the Soviet era. AND
• Amnesty International 2015/2016 Report: “Freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly (in Russia) remained severely restricted”. AND
• Reporters Without Borders 2015 World Press Freedom Index: “While Russia’s leading TV channels continue to inundate viewers with propaganda, the Ukrainian crisis led to an increase in pressure on independent media, with a string of draconian laws, website blocking and leading independent news outlets either being brought under control or throttled out of existence”. AND
• Freedom House “Freedom in the World” 2016 Report: “The government has consistently reduced the space for freedoms of assembly and association. Overwhelming police responses, the use of force, routine arrests, and harsh fines and prison sentences have discouraged unsanctioned protests, though pro-Kremlin groups are able to demonstrate freely”.

We could definitely ask our Russian colleagues to share their valuable and profound experience in putting an end to the practice of alleged political assassinations in Ukraine if not one fact.

The fact that Russia could give others an advantage over the speed of investigating murders of such journalists as Vladislav Listyev (1995), Paul Klebnikov (2004), Natalya Estemirova (2009), Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev (2013), Timur Kaushev (2014) and of course Anna Politkovskaya (2006).

While talking about putting an end to political assassinations, please, tell that to the relatives of Boris Nemtsov or Alexander Litvinenko. But sorry. Sir Robert Owen has already said on that when it comes to the latter.

In addition to that Russia must put an end to the practice of taking political hostages. We all remember brave Ukrainians like Crimean anti-occupation activists Oleg Sentsov, Alexander Kolchenko, Akhtem Chiyhoz and many others, as well as Nadiya Savchenko who is now on the edge of death in the Russian prison.

By finishing we would like to thank the Press-Secretary for mentioning the UK’s strong position on the Russian aggression against Ukraine. We truly appreciate that. But we want you to know that unlike Russia which is putting billions of dollars into its dirty propaganda in Western media, we are not paying for Western support. The civilized world doesn’t need our bribes just to support us. Because it is not only about Ukraine. It is about respect for human rights and values, territorial integrity and sovereignty, international norms and principles. Actually about the things that Russia has neglected, disregarded and bypassed when it annexed Crimea and launched war in the Eastern Ukraine.

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