russian government not welcome at Munich security conference

On February 17, the Munich international security conference will begin in Germany, but representatives of the russian government were not invited to it.

This was announced by the conference chairman, Christoph Heusgen, in an interview with journalists on Wednesday, February 1, DW writes.

According to Heusgen, it is about reluctance to provide the platform of an authoritative international security forum for the propaganda of the president of the russian federation, vladimir putin.

"The statements that we hear every day from the kremlin do not allow us to conclude that russia will retreat even one iota from what putin has declared as the goal of the war, namely, the destruction of Ukraine," Heusgen said.

Instead of russian government officials, russia invited representatives of civil society and the opposition to the conference. In particular, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and russian opposition politician Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Heusgen, who previously served as a foreign policy adviser to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said:

"putin has made it clear that he ultimately wants to recreate the Soviet Union. If the russian president succeeds in Ukraine, he will eventually invade the Baltic states as well. Since these countries are NATO members, it will directly affect Germany, and the allied commitments would be involved. This must be prevented, so Ukraine must be assisted."

Earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said that he does not see any sense in the fact that the countries of the European Union have russian ambassadors. He said this at a joint press conference with colleagues from the Baltic states and Poland.

Reference

On February 21, russian president vladimir putin recognized the legal personality of the "LPR" and "DPR" and stated that they are recognized within the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. He also confirmed that this means the failure of the Minsk agreements. In three days, on February 24, 2022, putin announced that russia would introduce troops into the territory of Ukraine to conduct a "special military operation for denazification and demilitarization." Immediately after this appeal, around 5 am, russian troops began shelling infrastructure facilities throughout Ukraine and residential areas.