Part of the ruin inflicted on Ukraine by Russia. Photo: Google

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was announcing that the Joe Biden administration had determined Russia had indeed committed war crimes in Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to Mexico Víktor Koronelli went before Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, March 23, to “congratulate” the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) for not imposing sanctions against his country.

“We very much respect the position demonstrated, already several times, by the President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and by the Foreign Relations (SRE) Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, that Mexico will never unite with anti-Russian sanctions and that never, despite requests from the government of Ukraine, supply weapons to Ukraine,” Koronelli said, during a meeting of the parliamentary Russia-Mexico Friendship Group.

The ambassador noted that since the beginning of Moscow’s invasion into sovereign Ukraine territory, he has been in “close contact” with the SRE staff.

“Today, in the world, there are countries such as China, India, and Mexico that will never answer ‘yes, sir’ at the orders of Uncle Sam,” Koronelli said.

The ambassador went on to claim that Russia is being persecuted by a global media war against the government of President Vladimir Putin.

He also enumerated reasons that he alleged “justified” Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, saying that the “special military operation” had the objective of the “denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine,” this despite the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and a direct descendant of Holocaust survivors.

Koronelli also claimed that the people on the occupied Crimean Peninsula had “voted to join Russia,” comparing that situation to what is happening on the Falkland Islands.

“I have no doubt that what is happening these days is not going to affect Russia’s relations with Mexico in any way,” he said.

“In 2021 alone, despite covid and all the restrictions, our trade more than doubled compared to 2020, reaching a record figure of S4.8 billion.”

In response to Koronelli’s statements, he federal deputies who participated in the installation of the Russia-Mexico Friendship Group, almost all of whom were members of AMLO’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party and its allies in the pro-communist Labor Party (PT) said they were “concerned” about peace in Europe, but they did not condemn Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, which has so far forced more than 3 million people to seek asylum abroad.

Meanwhile, the Citizens’ Movement (MC) and conservation National Action Party (PAN) deputies refused to attend the meeting, protesting outside with placards demanding the end of the invasion.

MC Deputy Jorge Álvarez Máynez said that his party had tried to cancel the Russia-Mexico Friendship Group meeting, “since this is not a message that coincides with the position that Mexico has maintained in the UN.”

“(The Russian invasion of Ukraine) is not a conflict between two responsible parties,” he said.

“This is a clear case of an invader and a clear situation in which people that are being massacred.”

For its part, the PAN deputies said that under no circumstances would they be part of the “imprudence and insensitive” meeting with the Russian envoy.