Russell "Texac" Bentley
OpEds

I spent the night in our house in Petrovsky last night, for the first time in more than a year. Although the nazis have been officially moved out of Maryinka, the shelling in Petrovsky (going both ways) is loud and steady, but not as loud and steady as the internet clamor about Sergey Lavrov's recent interview with RIA News.

Of course, what most people who are up in arms and condemning Minister Lavrov don't know is what he actually said and the meaning that can be inferred from his words. It is a far cry from the less-than-ideal headline written by RT, and the subsequent outright lies by Western propagandists, including, and especially, in Israel itself. Which just goes to prove, once again, that it is almost always well worth the effort to go to the actual source, and find the words verbatim.

There is, of course, the actual video of the interview in question, but this is not useful for those around the world who do not speak Russian. A more useful source of the words for this audience is the official transcript of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the text of which can be easily translated using Yandex, DeepL, or any other quality online machine translators. The specific words at the heart of the controversy can be found in Lavrov's answer to a question about Gaza close to the end of the interview. Here is the quote -

"Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that Hamas must be destroyed entirely and as a military force. This is similar to demilitarization. He also said that extremism must be eliminated in Gaza. This is similar to denazification. Moreover, I don’t really understand why the previous Israeli government, when Lapid was Prime Minister, reacted so much to the start of our special military operation. His reaction was surprising to me. Like, how dare Russia use force against the civilian population and annex Ukrainian territories."

Unfortunately, these words are somewhat ambiguous - they can be misconstrued to mean that what the IDF is doing in Gaza (and now also in the West Bank) is comparable to what Russia has done in Ukraine. Nothing could be further from the truth, both in reality, and in the intent of Lavrov's words.

No honest or serious person could in any way compare Israel's genocidal attacks on Gaza, (in which more than 70% of the homes have been destroyed, over 56,000 people have been wounded, and almost 21,000 people have been killed, the vast majority civilians, and the majority of those civilians, women and children) with the limited military operation of Russia in Ukraine, where Russia has tried every diplomatic approach to avoid or reduce the violence, and taken great pains to avoid destruction of civilians, and non-military infrastructure, even in the face of constant escalation and provocations by the Kiev regime and their Western masters. It is simply not credible in any degree to infer that this comparison was what Lavrov intended.

Lavrov's words were taken out of context and their meanings intentionally twisted. To understand what Lavrov actually meant, the quoted text above should be read along with the other words Lavrov said in response to the question about Israel and Gaza. He also mentioned "conspiracy theories" such as 9/11 and the faked moon landings, in relation to the theory that the Hamas attack on October 7th was actually allowed to happen by the Israeli regime, in order to "justify" the absolutely overwhelming and disproportional response.
(It should be noted that there is credible evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, and that the US moon landings never actually happened, as well as that Mossad and the IDF knew the Hamas attack was imminent, and let it happen.)

Lavrov also noted the shared anti-nazi history of Russia/USSR and Israel, saying, "We need to be very careful about our shared history with Israel. And above all to the history of the fight against Nazism... The Holocaust and the extermination of the multinational Soviet people are things of the same order, except for the numbers. 6 million people – Holocaust, and more than 20 million people - peoples of the Soviet Union."  He also went on to point out the hypocrisy of Israeli support for the Kiev regime, in spite of the fact that Kiev openly glorifies S. Bandera, R. Shukhevych and other Nazis, and uses and honors their symbolism, not to mention their methods.

Lavrov is one of the top diplomats and statesmen in modern history. Compared to his Western counterparts, he is a veritable giant among pygmies. Sometimes, in diplomacy, it is required to say things without saying them openly or directly, to say them without actually saying them. Lavrov is a master of his craft, and clearly, this is what he has done here. He is not paid to speak his mind, or even uphold the truth. His job is to do with diplomacy that which protects the Russian Federation and advances its geopolitical objectives.

The relationship between Moscow and Tel Aviv is complicated. Israel is a small but extremely influential player on the world stage. They also possess nuclear weapons and the so-called "Samson Doctrine". They must be treated gingerly. Perhaps I can say what Lavrov cannot - All decent people in the world stand against the massacre of the people of Palestine, just as they stand against the nazi regime in Kiev. These people stand on the right side of history and morality, and so does Russia. And Sergey Lavrov stands with Russia, so I see no reason not to trust and support him.

Good luck to all good people. May God protect the innocent and their defenders, and may the rest of us get everything we got coming.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and best regards from Petrovsky District of Donetsk.

"Texas"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR / SOURCE

Russell Bonner Bentley, aka “Texac”, is an American-born writer and onetime volunteer soldier with the Novorossiyan Armed Forces (NAF), as the young republics in Eastern Ukraine confronted the assault of the US-created and nazi-dominated Kiev regime.  Russell incarnates the spirit of the Lincoln Brigades, and Jack Reed. Besides his former duties as a frontline fighter, Russell also works as a war correspondent. His chronicles about the situation in that strategically critical region, featured as “War Diaries” on The Greanville Post, are also distributed to other leading left publications, reaching a global audience.