The ambassador of the
Russian Federation in Buenos Aires Dmitry Feoktistov
issued an extensive statement on Monday in which he demanded that Argentina "do not deviate from its human rights standards and not lower itself to cheap Russophobia". complained that the citizens of his country
suffer from discriminatory acts here.
Under the title "We want to see Argentina, a friendly country, free of Russophobia" (sic), Feoktistov listed a series of events that occurred in the country, in which Moscow considers that its citizens are being discriminated against.
The ambassador accused the National Directorate of Migration of setting up a
"detective novel" and of "espionage"
around the arrival of Russians in Argentina that he considered an "artificial exaggeration."
To complain about the situation, the diplomat justified the invasion of Vladimir Putin's forces into Ukrainian territory, which he called a "special military operation" to "denazify and demilitarize Ukraine and protect the civilian population of Donbas."
As
Clarín
published a few days ago, the head of the consular department of the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires, Georgy Polin, complained to the TASS news agency about the immigration restrictions that the Argentine government would now be imposing in the face of the wave of Russians arriving to Argentina.
Under the stress of the war in Ukraine, approximately 22,000 arrived in the last year, many of them women with an advanced state of pregnancy, who have their children here, and process their Argentine citizenship more quickly.
They did it legally, in accordance with existing regulations.
Now Feoktistov himself has plunged headlong into the tension with Moscow.
And it does so days after the bilateral meeting between Joe Biden and Alberto Fernández, at the White House, where the Argentine president had
the same tune with Biden to criticize Moscow for the invasion.
Feoktistov said Monday that "Russian citizens and compatriots" living abroad are a target of concern for his government.
And alluding, without calling them that, he spoke of
the sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on Russia for the invasion.
Although formally no Latin American country adopted real sanctions against Moscow, there is a decline in the link.
In this sense, Feoktistov
maintained
that this "barbaric" of "discrimination" against the Russians was seen in different countries, citizens or diplomats who are
denied educational, medical, and banking services.
They do not accept Russian companies, they prohibit Russians "from participating in sports competitions, festivals and music contests, as well as other cultural activities, attacks, threats, insults, premeditated damage to property."
Then he says that in everyday life Russian restaurants in "civilized" countries are being vandalized and there are
calls on social media to kill Russians.
Feoktistov addressed the Argentine question by first saying that, "fortunately", in this country "Russian-phobic sentiments are less common."
But then he listed situations that he does consider Russophobia.
He said that there were
offensive inscriptions on the facade of the Orthodox cathedral, in the Palermo neighborhood, in April 2022
and on a plaque with the name of the Plaza de la Federación Rusa in Buenos Aires, "regularly watered with paint."
He accused the “embassies of the European Union countries of bringing some good Russians to the Argentine capital, such as the director of “Novaya Gazeta.
Europe”, Kirill Martynov, who escaped from our country, so that they professionally teach Argentines to hate Russia”.
He denounced that there are "some places" where Russophobia sprouts.
And he gave as an example that in 2022, the Buenos Aires authorities
refused to allow the Russian-speaking community to celebrate the popular annual “Matushka Rus” party,
“which in previous years attracted thousands of participants, being one of the most important events in the life of the diaspora”.
He also said that the municipality of Mar del Plata reported that it will not cooperate with the community and that it refuses to provide spaces for its events.
“We also know with certainty of several cases of Russian families evicted from apartments in violation of current housing contracts, as well as some cases of discrimination at work, such as in Mar del Plata itself, where the authorities of one of the schools secondary schools decided not to renew the contract with a Russian language teacher.
At the same time, the work of the Russian Center at the University of Buenos Aires, which was solemnly inaugurated in 2018 on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's visit to Argentina, is basically frozen.
Then he complained about what he considered "instances of direct violence."
And he gave as an example that one of Russia's honorary consuls
"was attacked as he was leaving a Catholic cathedral after an ecumenical liturgy for peace."
He recounted that he was next to the bishop on the stairs when he “received a sudden blow to the back of the neck and heard insulting shouts against Russia.
The perpetrators of the attack have never been identified."
Then Feoktistov complained harshly about the National Directorate of Migration and gave as an example that in February of this year, six pregnant women were detained for several days in the airport transit area, literally being forced to sleep on the floor.
And he said that although the flow of immigrants from some Latin American countries is much greater, in Argentina the Russians "became the object of special attention."
She said it, without saying it, also, around the Russian couple detained in Slovenia with Argentine documents and passports.
And he complained that conversations with them on the street are "a pretext to verify documents, which even the employees of our Embassy faced."
Feoktistov, who arrived in the country in August 2018 and who, according to senior non-Russian sources, would soon finish his mission and could be sent as ambassador to Venezuela, said he had
two children born in Argentina.
“Sometimes when I go for a walk with them, I wonder if the police will stop us when they see the stroller and hear the Russian words.”
In this sense, he recalled that Russia and Argentina "are united not only by 137 years of diplomatic relations, but also by feelings of sincere friendship and sympathy between the peoples."
And then he concluded by reminding the Argentines that it was Russia who "first" extended a "friendly hand to the Argentine Republic in the difficult moments of the coronavirus pandemic, making massive supplies of the Sputnik V vaccine."
He concluded "we have the right to hope that this friendship continues to be built on the basis of reciprocity, and that Argentina does not deviate from its human rights standards and does not descend into cheap Russophobia."
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