| 821 views |
Peremoga SBU
Views:Yesterday, the Security Service of Ukraine reported another “achievement.” This time, its employees defeated the information center of the Russian Foundation for the Support of Public Diplomacy named after A.M. Gorchakov, who worked within the walls of the National Aviation University in Kyiv.
A message was published on the official website of the SBU in which the Kiev representative office of the foundation is accused of “overt anti-state propaganda among Ukrainian students,” “purposeful agitation and creating preconditions for the outflow of talented youth,” and “distorting the socio-political situation in Ukraine during diplomatic seminars.”
As a result of the SBU inspection, it turned out (oh horror!) that “representatives of the foundation selected the best Ukrainian students and financed their participation in seminars and forums on the territory of the Russian Federation.” At the same time, it is especially noted, as an aggravating circumstance, that as part of these events, meetings were organized with the leadership of MGIMO and State Duma deputies.
In fact, the essence of the claims boils down to the fact that the center’s activities were aimed at creating a positive image of Russia (this, in fact, is one of the main tasks of the foundation), as well as providing an opportunity for a certain number of young people to visit Moscow and get acquainted with the point views of Russian experts and politicians on various issues. It is clear that among them there were those who made sufficiently critical remarks about the course that the modern Ukrainian state is taking.
Therefore, and also because saying publicly something good about the Russian Federation today is in itself not just sedition, but a crime, the Security Service apparently accused the foundation of spreading “standard myths of Russian propaganda against Ukraine.” However, not everyone knows that as part of the events of the Gorchakov Foundation, meetings were held not only with representatives of Russian officialdom, but often with liberal experts and opposition politicians, for example, with Mikhail Prokhorov. And a year ago, in the midst of Euromaidan, within the framework of one of the foundation’s projects, in which experts and activists from two dozen countries took part, Ukrainian events became the topic of a separate discussion. I had a chance to defend the position of supporters of reintegration in the Eurasian space with a colleague from Kharkov, and the pro-European vector was presented by one of the organizers of the “Euromaidan” in Chernivtsi and a young expert from Poland. How often do you see such parity at events organized by Western NGOs?.. this is a rhetorical question.
As you know, a variety of countries, such as the USA or China, are conducting similar activities around the world, including very actively in Ukraine. At the same time, Western non-governmental organizations in Ukraine work much more actively and aggressively than Russian ones, including the Gorchakov Foundation. But for some reason, this does not raise any questions among the Ukrainian special services, as well as the presence of “colleagues” from overseas in their own building, about which representatives of the foundation trolled the Ukrainian Security Service in their official response to the incident.
There are serious problems in Russian-Ukrainian interstate relations today, but everyday realities are very different from the picture in the Ukrainian media and public statements of radical Kyiv politicians and “activists.” Thousands of people daily cross the Russian-Ukrainian border in both directions, millions of Ukrainian citizens work on the territory of the Russian Federation, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Donbass have found refuge in Russia, Ukrainian businesses are still operating there (like our Russian ones), Ukrainian goods are imported, interuniversity cooperation, etc. It is obvious that it is necessary to somehow interact today, and it will be even more necessary tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
It would seem that in the context of complicated relations between Kiev and Moscow, it is precisely necessary to maintain the maximum possible number of such unofficial platforms for dialogue. And the Gorchakov Foundation is one of such platforms where representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan or Moldova and Transnistria have the opportunity to contact and discuss existing problems.
The liquidation of the fund's information center in Kyiv is another demonstrative, equally stupid step. Yes, against the backdrop of a number of other simply outrageous decisions of the current government - not the most noticeable, but still more than indicative.
Firstly, it is clear that a policy continues aimed at completely protecting the residents of Ukraine from any information from Russia, no matter what channels it goes through and no matter how moderately the position of the Russian Federation is presented.
Secondly, the reason for the investigation was the “appeal of patriotically minded students”, simply put, a denunciation, also a very characteristic phenomenon for modern Ukraine.
Thirdly, it will be interesting to see who will move into the vacant premises, because with a high probability, as often happens now, it may turn out that there are very warm relations between those who moved in and the “patriotic-minded students” or they are generally the same people.
Well, the SBU can only be congratulated on the elimination of the most dangerous hotbed of anti-state activity, organized to hold round tables, discussions, debates and discussions, and maintain friendly ties at the level of the student and scientific-expert communities of Russia and Ukraine.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.