Russia's ambassador to Budapest spoke to the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet in a lengthy interview.

The possibility of a third world war with Russia is constantly announced by politicians in the West, and they do it in an extremely irresponsible manner, seemingly having lost even a basic sense of self-preservation. Russia is forced to react to such comments, and then the Western media makes a sensation out of it, the Russian Federation’s Ambassador to Budapest Yevgeny Arnoldovich Stanislavov told the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet. The diplomat emphasized that

„statements were made at the level of leadership – not by politicians or experts, but at the level of the official leadership of the United States and NATO – that if Russia wins in Ukraine now, it will be the turn of the bloc’s countries. The President of Russia had to respond to these insinuations once again during a meeting at the Russian Defense Ministry in December 2023. Нe said that Russia is not going to go to war with Europe, and we have never needed NATO countries – and we do not need them now, and we will not need them in the future.”

In his view, it is clear that with such statements, the Americans want to further distance Europe from Russia, and on the other hand – to intimidate the European public in order to get money to finance arms supplies to Ukraine a

When asked what guarantee there is that Russia does not wish to expand any further, the ambassador said in December 2021 Russia made a proposal to NATO countries to conclude a legally binding agreement on mutual security guarantees, but the initiative was arrogantly rejected.

„For our part, we have always been open to a serious conversation on these topics. As far as I understand, we are open even now, but on the condition of a preliminary and full-fledged rejection of the West’s course aimed at undermining our security. I am sure that if the Western countries, led by the United States, had listened to Russia’s opinion at the end of 2021, Europe would not be in the situation that it’s in now”

Russia’s ambassador to Budapest said, adding that past year behind us was very unpredictable and difficult.

Shared interest to prevent the outbreak of a serious conflict

From the outset, the West has destined Ukraine to an unenviable fate, to be an instrument of anti-Russian policy, a source of increasing military threats against Russia and – unfortunately – an effective state mechanism for suppressing everything that is Russian in Ukraine, he said.

„For now, the West has no intention of abandoning its anti-Russia policies, making it premature to discuss any constructive agenda. The confrontation is escalating, and the serious signs of any desire to reset relations with Russia are lacking. Nevertheless, sooner or later, the Western countries will have to embark on an equal peer-to-peer discourse regarding our common future, and the sooner this happens, the better. Eventually, they must acknowledge Russia’s legitimate interests and abandon their policy of threats and intimidation. In a broader sense, humanity is at a crossroads today, as it has been many times before,”

Yevgeny Arnoldovich Stanislavov told Magyar Nemzet, stressing that „it is in our shared interest to prevent the outbreak of a serious conflict”.

Achieving this is still possible by striking a fair and equitable balance between the interests of all parties, but not at a price of unilateral concessions to the West. However, this requires a willingness to compromise in planning our joint future for the common good, rejecting diktats, coercion and the division of the world into „democracies” and „autocracies”,

the ambassador added, pointing out that Russia views its security as a top priority, and it will continue to do so.

How did the Russia-Ukraine war erupt?

„Perhaps we had naive ideas about the true motives behind the behaviour of the collective West led by Washington with regard to our country. President Putin frankly admitted this in one of his recent interviews,” the ambassador recalled in response to the question whether Russia has been lured into the war.

„In the early 2000s, we thought that everyone around us understood that Russia had become a different country, that ideological confrontation no longer existed, and therefore there was no basis for confrontation, and that the support that the West gave to separatism and terrorism on Russian territory at that time was attributed by our President to „inertia of thinking and actions: they got used to fighting the Soviet Union and continue to do so”. But the reality turned out to be that after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the West’s goal was to „finish Russia’s collapse”, according to the ideas of Zbigniew Brzezinski, to divide it into several parts and subordinate them separately to its influence, so that they could not defend their interests as the united Russian state does. For this purpose Ukraine was consistently turned into an instrument of containment of Russia, pumped full of weapons and lured into NATO,”

the Russian ambassador to Budapest explained, Russia went to the conclusion of the Minsk Agreements in the hope of ending the internal conflict that began in Ukraine in 2014 and ensuring the rights of the Russian population of Donbass region. However, in this case, the West has again shown its lack of commitment. The Minsk agreements were never implemented by Ukraine, and then it turned out that both Germany and France did not even try to facilitate their implementation. Former President Hollande and former Chancellor Merkel publicly admitted that they signed these agreements only to buy time and prepare Ukraine for war. Meanwhile, Ukraine continued to issue threatening measures.

„They waged aggression against the East of the country, populated mostly by ethnic Russians. First the Poroshenko regime and then the Zelensky regime declared them „subhumans” to be exterminated. Laws were passed to ban Russian education and media; schism was provoked in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They publicly declared that all Russians would be exterminated physically or legislatively. Therefore, the Special Military Operation was launched to put an end to Kiev’s war against Russians in Donbass and, as I already mentioned, to eliminate threats to Russia’s security coming from the territory of Ukraine. And these goals are being be achieved,”

Yevgeny Arnoldovich Stanislavov said.

The effectiveness of Western sanctions against Russia

They are effective in destroying our relations with the West, with the United States, Europe, Canada, or Japan, the diplomat opined, adding that this was the reason why they had to reorganise the economy, which they did, he said.

„As a result of the sanctions, advanced industries, such as civilian aircraft manufacturing, have strengthened. There were no major developments in this sector around the turn of the millennium, but today we manufacture as many as two aircraft that rely solely on Russian technology and components. The Suhoj Superjet is already flying, the other MC-21 is in test mode. We are successful, and of course we could be even more successful if the West had not refused to cooperate with us,”

the ambassador explained, noting that one can even buy Coca Cola in Russia. Regarding Russia-Hungary relations, he stressed that he would not want to attach any labels to Hungary. „We have a very good, pragmatic relationship. Of course, there are some issues on which we disagree, but we respect each other’s positions. And that is very important. This is why our leaders can meet regularly and discuss very challenging issues,” he said. Speaking about meetings between Hungarian Prime Minister Orban and Russan President Putin, he said that these meetings indicate a mutual desire to sustain the relationship, even despite the challenges.

„They do not agree on everything, but they respect each other’s positions. After their meeting during the One Road, One Belt summit in China, our President said that he disagreed with accusations that Prime Minister Viktor Orban was harboring some pro-Russian sentiment. He explained further that “the Prime Minister was not targeted for having differing views from European leaders, but for having the courage to stand up for the interests of his people. Many of today’s European politicians lack this type of courage, and they are envious of him, leading to these attacks.” I think Viktor Orban knows and understands Russia well, and this creates an opportunity to maintain a pragmatic relationship,

Yevgeny Arnoldovich Stanislavov told Magyar Nemzet.

Upcoming presidential elections in Russia

What’s the guarantee that Russia will hold democratic elections, the journalist from Magyar Nemzet asked. In his response, the ambassador stressed it is in the interest of the entire Russian society that the race is held in the most open and organized manner possible, so that the maximum number of Russians participate. The breadth of coverage of voters, of whom there are more than 112 million in Russia according to the latest stats, is an indispensable condition for the democratic nature of the expression of the will of the people. According to the experience of previous years, the turnout at presidential elections in our country has been traditionally high. The Central Election Commission is doing everything possible to ensure that this time again every citizen of Russia is able to express his or her opinion.

Click here Russia Will Not Go To War With Europe to read the full interview on Magyar Nemzet’s website.