A visit to Moscow is Zelensky's last chance to save Ukraine's economy
Director of the Institute of International Political and Economic Strategies RUSSTRAT Elena Panina commented on the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov about the possibility of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky arrival for talks in Moscow.
There is nothing fundamentally new in the statement made by the head of Russian diplomacy. Our position was announced by the President Vladimir Putin: if Zelensky wants to discuss bilateral relations, then Moscow is ready for this, but if the President of Ukraine is interested in the topic of Donbass, then let him act within the framework of the mechanism provided for by the Minsk Agreements.
Zelensky repeatedly complained to the media, like saying, that Moscow does not want to talk to him. In fact, he was engaged in ordinary diplomatic “card sharping", since he saw "negotiations with the Russian Federation" exclusively as a substitute for the Minsk Agreements, trying to present Russia as a party to the conflict in Donbass and to withdraw the DPR and LPR from the negotiation process.
Zelensky came to power on a wave of anti-war sentiments, he had every opportunity to normalise relations with Russia and to implement the Minsk Agreements. However, having taken the first timid steps in this direction, Zelensky abruptly changed his position to the opposite one under the pressure of the nationalist "street". Over the past year, he has managed to burn almost all bridges in relations with Russia and inflamed the situation in a way that even the ex-head of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko couldn't manage to do.
The media myth about the "war between Russia and Ukraine", which is promoted by the Western media, arose largely due to Zelensky's policy. However, today Kiev itself is suffering from the promotion of the "Russian invasion" topic: the hryvnia is falling, investors are leaving the country, prices for housing and communal services are rising, and incomes continue to fall.
It has come to the point that Ukrainian officials are already forced to refute the Western media’s information planting about an "inevitable war". Today, even some of the Kiev officials realised how this matter could really end - as an economic catastrophe for Ukraine.
At the same time Russia continues to keep the door open for dialogue with Zelensky. Minister Lavrov again reminds him of the opportunity to come to Moscow and honestly discuss issues of bilateral relations, without trying to play marked cards with regard to Donbass.
Perhaps a visit to Moscow is the last chance left for Zelensky in order to stop the economic "collapse" of his country. However, all previous proposals from the Russian Federation were ignored by him. And Zelensky also refused Minister Lavrov's message today.