he is a russian diplomat uh he works for
russia at their un mission in geneva in
switzerland he's worked for russia's
foreign ministry their equivalent of our
state department for two decades uh he
spent a large part of that time serving
as an advisor on nuclear
non-proliferation for the russian
government today he quit and he didn't
just quit quietly he turned it up to 11.
this is how he told his colleagues he
said quote for 20 years of my diplomatic
career i have seen different turns of
our foreign policy but never have i been
so ashamed of my country as on february
24th of this year the day russia invaded
ukraine quote this aggressive war
unleashed by putin against ukraine and
in fact against the entire western world
is not only a crime against the
ukrainian people but also perhaps the
most serious crime against the people of
russia those who conceived this war want
only one thing to remain in power
forever to live in pompous tasteless
palaces to sail on yachts comparable in
tonnage and cost to the entire russian
navy enjoying unlimited power and
complete impunity to achieve that they
are willing to sacrifice as many lives
as it takes thousands of russians and
ukrainians have already died just for
this
he goes on to say quote i studied to be
a diplomat and have been a diplomat for
20 years the foreign ministry has become
my home and my family but i simply
cannot any longer share in this bloody
witless and absolutely needless
ignominy
the diplomat's name is is is boris
bondurev
his statement also took a direct shot at
his boss russia's longtime foreign
minister which again is the their
equivalent of our secretary of state he
says of their foreign minister that he
quote went from a professional and
educated intellectual who many of my
colleagues held in such high esteem to a
person who constantly broadcasts
conflicting statements and who threatens
the world with nuclear weapons
and this resignation is fascinating that
final point is very provocative right
this guy who has just quit the highest
profile diplomatic resignation since
russia started this war he's a nuclear
non-proliferation expert
after he quit today he told the new york
times he was disturbed by the
nonchalance with which some of his
fellow russian diplomats chatted about
possible nuclear strikes against the
west
that is also a thing that is apparently
increasingly happening on
state-controlled russian tv mr bhandarev
said of that talk quote they think that
if you hit some village in america with
a nuclear strike then the americans will
immediately get scared and run to beg
for mercy on their knees quote that's
how many of our people think
and i fear that this is the line that
they are passing along to moscow
joining us now is julia davis she's a
columnist for the daily beast she's the
founder of the russian media monitor
which tracks russian
government-controlled television and
propaganda ms davis i really appreciate
you making time to be here tonight thank
you
thank you so much rachel it's my
pleasure
uh mr bonder of today um raises this
issue in his resignation leather letter
and then in in follow-up interviews
including with the new york times saying
the nonchalance and the frequency of
discussion about what a good idea would
be to use nuclear weapons he as a
long-time diplomat as an expert in the
field finds unnerving i have to ask in
your monitoring of russian state
television if you're seeing what he's
describing
absolutely and it's so refreshing to
hear someone who's an insider like him
to address it because it's become
redundant every single day they bring up
the idea of nuclear strikes against
ukraine or against the west and it's a
non-stop chatter that has been basically
normalized at this point if you could
ever normalize anything as abnormal
they've become a
larger more dangerous north korea in
their rhetoric
and this has changed to be clear this
isn't a constant this is something
that's changed and become more frequent
over the course of this war over these
last three months
absolutely they followed the putin's
lead when he said if anyone dares to
interfere in what's going on in ukraine
they will be met with such retaliatory
action that they have never contemplated
or have seen before and on state
television they are repeatedly
reiterating that what he meant was a
nuclear strike and they repeat that with
a great sense of pride that that is one
thing that they know the west fears so
they like to
constantly repeat it and convince the
russians or attempt to convince them
that even if they have to die for the
motherland there's no better way to go
from your monitoring of this type of
propaganda the state-controlled
television in in russia do you feel like
that should make the west that should
make the american government that should
make us as people observing this um more
fearful about the prospect that putin
might choose to use nuclear weapons um
in either in in some tactical way or in
some strategic way do you feel like um
the saber rattling that you're seeing
there should make us feel like this is a
more acute threat or do you think this
is just a sort of generic sign of
belligerence and chest pounding that
might not translate directly into a
nuclear worry
we should remain clear-eyed about
russia's capabilities but at the same
time keep in mind that they are saying
it for us to be afraid for the west to
stop helping ukraine so it's definitely
posturing and we need to see it for what
it is it's the only thing that they
could threaten us was they can't
threaten us economically there's not
much they can do to us basically so um
that is one weapon at their disposal
that they like to saber rattle with and
their motive is
to
make us fear them and
that's exactly what they're hoping to do
and that should be the opposite of what
we do
the russian government has yet to
respond to this resignation from mr
bunder of today at least as far as i
know they haven't responded yet
what do you expect their their reaction
to it will be or do you think they'll
just pretend this didn't happen
i can safely predict what they will
probably do they usually follow the same
exact script in this types of instances
they will say he's a traitor they will
claim that he was offered some sort of a
reward by the west and he
sold out and this is the way that they
will portray him especially because his
letter was so scathing because he
referred to navalny's investigations
about lavrov's extended family uh taking
advantage of oleg deripaska's luxury
properties and putin's palaces all of
those based on navalny's investigation
so they will certainly try to claim that
he is a quote unquote trader simply for
exposing their corruption and not being
willing to to put up with their
warmongering and
horrific acts of aggression that they
have
engaged in
julia davis is a columnist of the daily
bishops creator of russian media monitor
ms davis thanks for making time to be
with us tonight it's really helpful to
have you here
thank you so much
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