RT: The European Parliament is urging an international investigation into the murder of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov. But this is about the murder of a Russian citizen inside Russia. Isn't that something that should be solved internally?
Aleksandar Pavic: Unfortunately this is breathtaking in its hypocrisy. I read the resolution just now and it’s in a collision with itself because Paragraph 4 of this resolution calls on all actors to refrain from using the murder of Nemtsov for political purposes - and clearly this is what this resolution is all about. Further, this resolution condemns the propaganda war, this heating up between the EU, Russia and Ukraine and the deteriorating atmosphere that it is causing. This is precisely what this resolution is doing - it’s hyping up the propaganda war and worsening the atmosphere in general.
RT: The EU's resolution also condemns what it calls a 'lack of freedom of expression in Russia' even though the coverage and reaction to that murder dominated the news in Russia. How does that tally with Europe's criticism?
AP: This is really the pot calling the kettle black. I mean how freely can you discuss in the West for example the lack of clarity regarding the investigation of Charlie Hebdo murders recently? Let’s go back to all sorts of political assassinations that took place in the West over the past decades. Let’s go back to the killing of Dr. David Kelly in 2003 when he put into question Blair’s lies regarding the pretext for the Iraq war. There is so much baggage in the West and they are just trying to pass it along to Russia to use the murder of Nemtsov for political purposes.
READ MORE: EU lawmakers demand international investigation into Nemtsov’s death
RT: Do you think it’s just for political purposes?
AP: Absolutely. It’s political, and it’s worse than that. It’s just not petty politics; this is also a way to torpedo the fragile ceasefire in Ukraine. This is a way to worsen the atmosphere. You had Russia in the first place and also Germany and France working really hard to make this ceasefire in Ukraine work, and you need to develop an atmosphere of mutual trust. This resolution is pointedly designed to destroy this atmosphere of trust that is trying to be built regarding Ukraine.
‘MEPs verbal hostility bad, but not important’
Bruno Drweski, professor at the National Institute of Languages and Eastern Civilizations, finds it strange that the EU Parliament wants an international investigation into the case. The EU Parliament virtually has no power over Russian institutions, he thinks.
Professor Drweski adds that Russia in its turn could also question how things are done in Europe concerning criminal cases.
“For example all the terrorist attacks we had not long ago. There are a lot of citizens in France or in other countries which are very unsure about the official version. And why Russia’s Parliament could not adopt a law [calling for an] international commission to supervise the inquiry of recent terrorist attacks in Paris for example?”
Indeed, there’s nothing good in verbal hostility expressed by European lawmakers towards Russia, but since they do not have real power over Russia, it is not really important, Drweski said. The real power there belongs to governments of “Germany and to a certain extent France and Great Britain,” he suggests. And what is important is not the MEPs resolution, but what governments of these nations want to do and what kind of relations they want to have with Moscow, he says.
According to Professor Drweski, anti-Russia sentiment in the West exists because its media is dependent on the US’s or NATO’s point of view.
“Of course the US has a very strong section of politicians who are against any improvement in the relations between Europe and Russia and that’s the point. Not all the American administration is pro-war but there is a large part of it... Of course Fox News is the most pro-Republican media so of course they are very pro-NATO, pro-war and very aggressive…”
However Bruno Drweski hopes that situation will change “since we have the Minsk agreement which signified that two European leaders decided to negotiate with Russia,” and as “the majority of people in Europe don’t want war in Ukraine and want to have peace with Russia”.
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