FT Lacking Political Will to Publish Russian Ambassador’s Letter on Ukraine: Embassy

LONDON, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - The Embassy of Russia in the United Kingdom is surprised by the Financial Times (FT) newspaper allegedly dragging out the publication of Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko's letter on the situation in Ukraine, the embassy said in a Monday press release.

"Since 3 October the Embassy has been waiting for a positive response from FT on publishing Ambassador Yakovenko's letter as part of the ongoing debate on Ukraine. We have only heard that our letter is under consideration. So, we have decided to publish the text of this letter on our web-site for the British public to see for themselves that there is nothing subversive, corrupting nor seditious in it, but legitimate desire to make a point on an issue of public interest and huge consequences for Ukraine and Russia-West relationship," the statement said.

The embassy added that it had to conclude that "FT's caution, to put it mildly, is indicative of an overall unwillingness on the part of the West to discuss specific issues involved, including the suspicious silence over the MH17 tragedy of 17 July."

According to the diplomatic mission's statement, Russia is seemingly "scapegoated for everything that goes wrong in the West and the world," and the Western elites "take cover under the concocted Russia threat to distract public opinion from their policy failures both domestic and international."

Ambassador Yakovenko's letter was triggered by an article by Martin Wolf entitled "Russia is our most dangerous neighbour," which was published by FT in September and attracted a lot of comments, including letters by history professor Geoffrey Roberts and former UK Ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton.

In his letter, available on the website of the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom, Yakovenko argues that the Ukrainian crisis could have been avoided, had the European Union acted transparently and considered its mutual obligations with Russia. "What we object to in the first place is the secretive method of the EU in dealing with Ukraine on such a scale in our, presumably interdependent and globalized world. A flawed method produces flawed outcomes," the letter said.

Following Russia's reunification with Crimea in March, the United States and the European Union introduced anti-Russian sanctions – first against individuals, and subsequently targeting whole sectors of the Russian economy. The West has also accused Russia of intervening in the armed conflict in Ukraine, accusing Moscow of sending troops to its neighbor. Senior Russian officials have repeatedly denied the claims, stressing that Moscow would never interfere in Ukraine's internal affairs.