West attempting to derail Minsk Agreement on Ukraine: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Joaquin Flores, with the Center for Syncretic Studies from Belgrade, for his insights into Russia’s travel ban against 89 politicians and military leaders from 17 European countries.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Considering Russia’s own black list as a reaction to the actions taken by the West, isn’t it a bit hypocritical when the West cries foul?

Flores: It is quite a bit hypocritical. What strange for people who look purely at Western press agencies like BBC or CNN. They read today that Russia made this move and it was mysterious that was completely out the blue. Headlines and leading lines read that Russia had not given an explanation, and this is quite frankly such a misappropriation of language and such a skewing of the truth that it only leads one to question the integrity of these reports. And in fact the Russian foreign ministry themselves asked after they had actually given publicly and transparently the names of the people on the list to their European counterparts whether when the same European counterparts had then leaked these to their own press, to their own media, whether the entire point of the request for these names was to actually stage does very same media show that were seen. In fact, it was the US rather the European Union and in fact German parties who increased their own list of Russians that are not allowed to enter into the EU. And for some time, leading up to this, the Russians in fact said, if you do this then we too have a list. Now, it should also be mentioned that quite a few of these people on this list are not random people of course at all, but in fact they are people very much tied to the Maidan in Kiev and to the coup, which occurred over a year ago and their denial of course is linked to concerns that they are involved in perhaps similar campaign.

Press TV: It was hopes that once the ceasefire or lack thereof came into effect in eastern Ukraine that the political tensions at least will simmer down a bit , but do you think that now the way things are going, the tensions between Russia and the West is going to take a lot more than a ceasefire agreement to simmer down?

Flores: It’s interesting to mention that in fact there was a very same point of the ministry which also today noted that just when relations look like they are starting to normalize just when things look like there could be some possibility for normality if you will, that there tends to be some tendency, whether from in the US or in the EU that seems quite bent if you will on derailing it. So, that’s in contrast to statements by Poroshenko who continues to refer to the governments in LPR and in DNR as separatists. These led of course also the people to question whether they are committed to Minsk [Agreement] at all.

ABN/GHN

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk