Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog at the Ekho Moskvi web-site, 15.03.2014

In a frantic effort to keep its rapidly falling popularity, Vladimir Putin’s regime has been taking unprecedented steps fraught with enormous risks for Russia’s national security and international stability.

Russia has been brought on the brink of war with the fraternal Ukrainian nation.

Vladimir Putin without any grounds received a permission from the Federation Council on the use of military force. The military units of the Black Sea Fleet have been activated in Crimea already. The Russian military have been set up by their participation without insignia in unlawful activities in the territory of another state for over a week.

Confrontation with the international community, especially with the West, has been in full swing.

Lies and propaganda about the threat to Russians in Ukraine exaggerating the real danger by many times have been pouring in an endless stream from TV screens and is broadcast on all the public channels.

The military-patriotic hysteria imposed on citizens by the propaganda resembles that used during preparations for the Anschluss of Austria and Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich.

Artists and celebrities, like in the Stalin period, sign letters aggressive by tone. People are forcibly driven to anti-Ukrainian demonstrations. Collecting clothes and money for Crimea looks absurd against the background of statements of rendering aid from the budgets of all levels.

It is not for the first time when the government is trying to distract people from domestic problems by means of a “small victorious war”.

However, this time, these actions are on the verge of insanity. The use of military force so that to annex parts of Ukraine contradict to the UN Charter, norms of international law and the Constitution of Russia.

Dramatic change in the political jurisdiction in a peaceful and non-conflict region is historically unprecedented. A political response “with the help of Crimea” onto the problems of the new government in Kiev looks like a threatening “lesson” to the world.

The Crimean adventurism may lead Russia to a national catastrophe and bring the world to the brink of a nuclear war.

These solutions lead to destabilisation of the situation in Ukraine and sharp escalation of the conflict, including in the regions that the Russian government was going to “protect”.

They take Russia out of the legal frameworks and in the perspective provoke the neighboring countries to putting forward territorial claims and their implementation in accordance with “the Crimean scenario”.

Before our eyes, Russia is rapidly turning into a rogue state, like Iran and North Korea.

Financial investment into Crimea will become a burden for the Russian budgetary system and will hit primarily ordinary citizens.

A conflict with the European Union, the United States and other countries will inevitably lead to restrictions on entry opportunities to these countries for Russian citizens if they go there for recreation, tourism and business.

Losing the opportunity to go on holiday abroad, the Russian middle class will not get any compensation in the form of recreation in Crimea, given the political situation around the peninsula, as well as poor quality of infrastructure and services there.

Fertile beaches and landscapes of Crimea will become objects for redistribution of property, hostile takeovers and environmental damage, as happened with the same resources of the Russian Black Sea coast.

We demand the following:

• renunciation of the use of force against fraternal Ukraine,

• abrogation of the decision of the Federation Council allowing to start a war between Russia and Ukraine,

• convening an international conference with participation of Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the U.S. to resolve contentious issues, including guaranteeing the rights and safety of the Russian-speaking and other national minorities in Ukraine.

NO WAR with the fraternal people!