RT earlier reported on a Japanese broadcaster’s claim that the draft joint statement which was prepared for this weekend’s Swiss talks on Ukraine won’t call for the withdrawal of Russian forces from all the territories claimed by Kiev and will also likely omit any mention of restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity. It’ll instead allegedly only focus on “the safety of nuclear power plants, food security, the release of prisoners and the return of children evacuated by Russia from the conflict zone.”
Russia still opposes these talks despite their reportedly scale-backed agenda as proven by what Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Izvestia: “They are trying to lure representatives of the Global South there by such rather primitive means, putting not Zelensky’s formula, which is actually in the organizers’ plan, to the fore, but secondary issues. You are for food security, for the safety of nuclear power plants, you support the exchange of prisoners, right? All right, then come and let’s talk.”
He also said that “These are absolutely ridiculous underhand games, they can be seen with the naked eye. It is already clear that this is a waste of time, a kind of action whose value is zero, but which is being used to the maximum to maintain the anti-Russian psychosis.” Grushko’s harsh rhetoric mirrors former President and incumbent Deputy Chair of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev’s, who tweeted late last month that all the countries which attend those talks are essentially taking Kiev’s side over Moscow’s.
It’s unimportant to Russia that the agenda has reportedly been scaled back since all that matters is that these talks are being held without its participation in the first place. Previous rounds of discussions on this conflict in Saudi Arabia didn’t elicit such a strong reaction, however, even though Russia also wasn’t there either. This observation makes one wonder what’s really driving Russia’s angry response to these latest ones since there isn’t any precedent for what its top representatives are saying about them.
It can’t be known for sure, but it might be that Presidents Putin and Xi agreed to promote a parallel non-Western peace process on Ukraine during the Russian leader’s trip to China last month. That would explain why China decided not to attend the Swiss talks, for which it was praised by Russia, while also unveiling a joint six-point consensus with this year’s G20 host Brazil. This sequence of events unfolded after President Putin’s visit, thus prompting speculation that it was coordinated with him.
From Russia’s perspective, the success of any Chinese-facilitated talks on Ukraine ahead of and at November’s G20 Summit in Rio is dependent on the Swiss ones’ failure, hence its total opposition to this weekend’s event and anger at all those of its partners like India who send even low-level representation. The decision has apparently been made to capitalize upon their failure to give momentum to the talks that China and Brazil might soon jointly organize with Russia’s endorsement.
The fewer Global South countries that participate in the Swiss talks and the more that participate in the potential Sino-Brazilian ones will discredit the former while lending greater legitimacy to the latter. Some of them that earlier committed to attending the Swiss talks are reportedly backing out at the last minute while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed that more Global South states are endorsing his country’s joint peace consensus with Brazil. The writing is thus on the wall for what’ll likely come next.
With this in mind, Russia’s continued opposition to the Swiss talks in spite of their reportedly scaled-back agenda makes sense, though it would have been better had Medvedev and Grushko not used such harsh language in their statements about them. Their sharp words risk inadvertently offending those of Russia’s close Global South partners like India that’ll still attend this weekend’s event. Hopefully those countries won’t be excluded from the potentially forthcoming Sino-Brazilian peace talks as punishment.
