Our View: Does Russia have moral authority to question how its expats are treated?

Russia’s embassy in Cyprus issued a document titled ‘Report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on the violation of the rights of Russian citizens and fellow citizens in foreign countries.’ This includes a page on the alleged violation of the rights of Russian citizens in Cyprus.

If this were a satirical piece sending up the arrogance and audacity of the Vladimir Putin regime, it may have drawn a few laughs, but it was not. It was meant to be taken seriously, at least as seriously as anything coming from the Russian foreign ministry, a body that has been engaging in the crudest form of propaganda ever since Russia’s troops invaded Ukraine in February.

With regard to Cyprus the report said: “The nationalistic-minded representatives of the Ukrainian expatriate community and Ukrainian refugees predominantly display aggression towards Russians. We are aware of incidents of moral and physical pressure on some of our fellow citizens in order to force them to publicly condemn the Russian government’s actions and support Ukraine….”

Does a totalitarian state like the Russian Federation which invaded a sovereign state in a land-grab operation and has flattened whole cities through unrelenting, indiscriminate bombing, causing death and destruction across Ukraine, have the moral authority to issue reports about the treatment of Russian citizens in foreign countries?

Russian troops can indiscriminately kill Ukrainian civilians and bomb their homes in Ukraine, but the real crime being committed is the “display of aggression” towards Russians by nationalistic-minded Ukrainians in Cyprus! And to make matters worse, “instances of Russophobia in educational institutions were established” and “there were also recorded incidents with bullying of Russian-speaking children by their classmates,” said the foreign ministry, which is now also concerned about isolated incidents of bullying at schools.

The real shock for the foreign ministry of the Russian Federation was that “there were anti-Russian protest actions with participation of deputies of the House of Representatives of Cyprus.” Was this Moscow’s way of telling politicians that it had taken note of those that took part in demonstrations against the invasion of Ukraine? The “protest actions” were against the invasion of Ukraine and not anti-Russian, as Moscow’s report claimed.

Perhaps the subservience shown by successive governments of the Republic to Moscow over the years, on the pretext that it took a principled position on the Cyprus problem (which was also propaganda), is why the Russian Federation is now expressing its disapproval so condescendingly. Hopefully, a few more Cypriots will now realise, given the tone of the announcement, the true nature of Nicosia-Moscow relations which our politicians, dutifully, praised at every opportunity.