ROME, February 22. /TASS/. Russia’s Ambassador to Italy Alexey Paramonov has warned against fomenting "an atmosphere of prewar psychosis."
"Recently, I have been seeing in the leading Western media and the rhetoric by Western politicians allegations about Russia’s aggressive intentions against the collective West and especially against countries of the European Union after the conflict in Ukraine, about the inevitability or the high probability of an armed confrontation between Russia and NATO in a few years. NATO’s new ‘secret plans’ in case of a war with Russia are being injected into the media space, creating an atmosphere of prewar psychosis," he wrote in an article published by the La Repubblica newspaper.
The Russian diplomat noted that even Russian blogger Alexey Navalny’s death, over which he had been summoned to the Italian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, "is being used by the West first and foremost to accuse Russia’s authorities and foment hatred to them, as well as to justify the profound strains in relations between Russia and the West."
According to Paramonov, over more than its 1,000-year history, Russia has never demonstrated any expansionist plans concerning the West - it has only responded to acts of aggression against it. "But the West keeps on regularly and persistently trying to weaken Russia and make it a global afterthought. It is done with unfailing aggressiveness - approximately once every one hundred years," he went on, recalling the historic events beginning from the Polish-Lithuanian occupation in the 17th century to Hitler’s invasion.
Expansionist goals, in his words, are clearly behind the West’s current attempts to deal "a strategic defeat" on Russia by means of Ukraine, "which has been assigned the role of its hybrid weapon against Moscow."
The Russian ambassador drew attention to Europe’s growing dependence on the United States and United Kingdom "via the rigid system of trans-Atlantic relations, which has long been a main military-political tool of the Anglo-Saxon hegemony." This is, in his words, a "self-destructive course," while Russia offers "cooperation in the format of a Big Eurasian Partnership as a space of comprehensive, mutually respectful strategic cooperation on the principles of equality, due account of each other’s interests, respect to sovereignty, cultural, traditional, and civilizational differences."
"It is deplorable that amid what is going on in Europe, the cradle of the Judeo-Christian civilization, even the art of diplomacy is degenerating, with the herd mentality, the right of the strongest, dictation, zero tolerance for alternative argument or viewpoints, blind belief in the a-priori supremacy of the West-centric world order winning the upper hand. And, naturally, these things in no way promote returning to a mutually respectful dialogue and the transition to a safer, fairer and more inclusive world order," he underscored.