Maria Zakharova: Western Media Still Pushing Well Known Lies

An excerpt from her weekly briefing.

Reiterating this history becomes tiresome but it must be done since Western media refuses to stop publishing outright lies, which perhaps shouldn’t surprise us too much as it’s become their MO. This is one item Maria addressed during her weekly briefing. IMO, the continuing prevarication by Western media needs to be seen as a big red flag to Russians while negotiating with Americans as their media shares the same level of credibility or rather lack thereof. IMO and that of many others, the hurry to complete a deal with Russia must be seen as being connected to something else more nefarious, which was deeply discussed today by Hudson and Wolff. As reported in the Negotiation Update article, numerous conditions that must be fulfilled were placed by Russia to get its consent for this new version of the Black Sea Agreement, conditions that President Putin recently told Industrialists and Entrepreneurs to expect to be unfulfilled—sanctions will continue forever in some form, meaning the duplicity of the West will never abate and that’s what needs to be considered in future planning:

Vladimir Zelensky made a "fantastic" statement in an interview with a US TV channel. Commenting on his conversation with US President Donald Trump, he said: "If you can force Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, that will be great, but you should know that he can deceive, he deceived me after the Minsk truce." All this, as it is, began to be reprinted by the Western media, without reminding their own audience of other quotes from their leaders, such as Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, that it was they who deceived not only the citizens of Ukraine, but also the entire international community by not fulfilling the Minsk Agreements, because they knew from the beginning that they would not comply with them.

In the course of our briefings and other public speeches, we regularly say that it is the "collective West" that has always stood for the disruption of all peace initiatives on Ukraine, starting with the bloody coup d'état in February 2014 and then step by step.

For a long time, the "guarantors" of the Minsk Agreements (primarily Germany and France, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande) declared their commitment to peace. Time passed, February 2022 happened, the authorities in these countries changed and the former leaders ceased to be restrained at all.

On December 7, 2022, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was in power for more than 16 years (who likes to talk about democratic processes?), who directly participated in the meetings of the Normandy format and in the process of drafting the Minsk Agreements, spoke very frankly in an interview with the German media. Let me remind you of the quote: "The Minsk agreements were an attempt to give time to Ukraine. They used this time to become stronger. Ukraine of the 2014-2015 model is not Ukraine today. I doubt that NATO countries would then have been able to do as much as they are doing now to help Ukraine. It was clear to all of us that this was a frozen conflict, that the problem had not been resolved. This is what gave Ukraine precious time." Why did the Western media, quoting Vladimir Zelensky today that he was allegedly deceived, not say specifically who deceived him?

Another guarantor, also a former one, but this time French President François Hollande supported Angela Merkel in the same way, saying: "The fuss around the Minsk agreements has led to the fact that since 2014 Ukraine has strengthened its military potential... It has become better... The merit of the Minsk agreements is that Kiev got time to strengthen its army, because in 2014 NATO could not provide Kiev with weapons to the extent that it is doing now, and stopped the Russian offensive for a while." The "fuss," as he said, is about the Security Council resolution, the Normandy format meetings, and the endless efforts of various representatives and special representatives to implement and monitor the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. And this was said by former French President Francois Hollande, the "guarantor" of the Minsk Agreements.

These are not just revelations and memories, but an admission of guilt, a confession, but only without remorse. Even then, in 2015, when they had many hours of conversations, they knew that they would never do anything like this and that they would pump the Kiev regime with weapons for further slaughter. They forget to mention one more important thing. They understood then and still understand that the Kiev regime is doomed. They have never felt sorry for anyone, neither women, nor children, nor the civilian population of Donbass, nor Ukraine as a whole. They just needed a conflict.

After these revelations, to say that Russia is allegedly to blame for something is an attempt to shift the blame from a sore head to a healthy one. After all, these are the same countries and the same leaders that were part of the Normandy format and manually led many political processes, including the change of power in Ukraine. The main thing in these revelations is that, from the point of view of the West, all this was a falsification, flirting with the use of international law with the sole purpose of pumping the Kiev regime with weapons and politically preparing it to start hostilities, which we saw in early 2022, when the Kiev regime began to escalate in Donbass, multiplying the shelling of civilians. Now they (these same Westerners) also need to "set fire" to the western part of Europe.

Then, with the Minsk Agreements, from their point of view, it was a distraction of the international community's attention from the real events on the territory of Ukraine, the humanitarian catastrophe and the endless killings that led to 2022. Do you remember what Europe came to at the end of 2021? More than 13,000 victims on all sides. This is the result of Western manipulation of the Minsk Agreements. This left no room for any other actions than those taken by the Russian Federation: first recognising these territories as sovereign and then accepting them into the Russian Federation so that they could be protected, to save the lives of citizens and preserve their dignity.

The main goal of this grandiose provocation was to create a hotbed of tension in this region, on the borders of the Russian Federation. Then came the illegal regime change, despite the fact that the people of Ukraine made the choices they needed. The West swept away all legitimately elected presidents and brought to power its puppets: Viktor Yushchenko, Petr Poroshenko and, finally, the "bloody, bunker" Vladimir Zelensky. That's how they began to prepare for a big conflict.

Let's remember what the third signatory of the Minsk Agreements, then President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko, said? This former one also told the BBC in a documentary: "You know what the success of the Minsk Agreements is, despite the fact that Russia has not fulfilled any of their points, allegedly, naturally. This document gave Ukraine eight years to build an army, economy and a global pro-Ukrainian coalition."

Do you think this is all a distant past and everyone has forgotten it? I assure you – no. Now all this is being actively promoted in the Western media, only from their point of view and logic, on the contrary.

All these quotes are carefully pushed forward and Vladimir Zelensky and other representatives of Bankova or Western regimes come to the fore, who are starting to talk about the deception committed around the Minsk Agreements. But in order to "put away" the confessions of Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, they are beginning to blame Moscow for this.

At the news conference "Ukraine. 2024", Vladimir Zelensky said that President of Russia Vladimir Putin "constantly raised the issue of a ceasefire" in Donbass during a personal meeting in 2019. And when Vladimir Zelensky was asked about the details of the meeting, he immediately replied that he did not remember them, that it was as if in another life. A great excuse, isn't it?

Let's go back a year earlier. In 2023, in an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel, Vladimir Zelensky was even more frank: "I did not see in the [Minsk] agreements a desire to preserve Ukraine's independence. I understand their [Western countries'] point of view: first of all, they wanted to quench Russia's appetites a little at the expense of Ukraine. Procrastination is completely normal in diplomacy. You never know when a decision-maker dies and everything suddenly becomes easier. <... > I told Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel that we cannot implement them [the Minsk agreements] this way... I jumped on this train, which, to be honest, was already rolling into the abyss. By "train" I mean these agreements in general. Each point is a wagon, and when you begin to disassemble it, you understand: everything is arranged in such a way that one side cannot fulfill something, and the other side freezes the conflict." There are a huge number of such statements.

I will cite another quote in support of what I was talking about: "We do not need military people with foreign flags on our territory. We are not asking for this. Otherwise, there will be destabilization all over the world. We don't want to give Russia another reason to say that we have bases here and that they need to defend themselves." Do you know who said that? Vladimir Zelensky, February 2022 Again, on the issue of peacekeeping, which is being discussed by the Westerners. [My Emphasis]

The name prominently missing above is Donald Trump who was US president during four crucial years of the Minsk Agreements—International Law—non-enforcement. Instead, Trump pumped ever more weapons and monies into Ukraine in contravention of International Law, and he now tries to absolve himself of that crime. The latest attempt at extortion of Ukraine by Trump was just made public that has many Ukrainians up in arms. Perhaps they will now remember what nation waged an aggressive war upon them in 2013-14 with the Maidan “color” revolt followed by an aggressive coup—the primary act of war—the empowerment of Nazis and detailing them to wage war on all Russian speakers and all things Russian, which began the reign of terror that is worse today than ever.

Russia all along has stated its willingness to talk provided it was treated respectfully. Trump, IMO, saw that as an opening and his ticket to return to power—he vowed he’d solve the war in 24 hours because he’d talk with Putin—that he would be a “peace president.” Since 20 January, we’ve seen just how peaceful he is—Abetting Genocide in Gaza and waging undeclared war on Yemen while allowing weapons and monies to continue flowing into Ukraine (yes, there was a hic-cup for a few days that didn’t make any difference). And now he’s directly threatened Iran with war if Iran doesn’t obey his diktat. Oh, and we mustn’t forget the Trade War he’s began against most of the world and his threat to steal Greenland. IMO, Putin was very cleaver to deflect the immediate demand of a ceasefire by detailing all the “nuances” involved in such an undertaking. Now the renewal of the Black Sea Grain deal but only upon the fulfillment of a detailed list of conditions, all of which are objected to by the Europeans and many in Congress. That makes two deals proposed and two deals failed. What will be the next failed deal? Today, Putin’s in Murmansk commissioning a nuclear submarine and addressing the plenary session of the VI International Arctic Forum 'The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue.’ Unlike Trump and his team, I doubt very much that Putin and his team gloat and laugh when they get battlefield results. And IMO that’s more than enough to tell us who are the Good Guys and who are the Bad.

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