Russian diplomat resigns in rare public statement

DAVOS, Switzerland AP - A veteran Russian diplomat to the UN Office in Geneva, handed in his resignation before sending out a scathing letter to foreign colleagues inveighing against the aggressive war unleashed by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

Boris Bondarev, 41, confirmed his resignation in a letter sent Monday morning at the Russian diplomatic mission after a diplomatic official passed on his English-language statement to the Associated Press.

For twenty 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 24 of this year, he wrote, alluding to the date of Russia's invasion.

Bondarev, a diplomatic counselor who has focused on Russia's role in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva after postings in places like Cambodia and Mongolia, confirmed by phone that he handed in his resignation in a letter addressed to Ambassador Gennady Gatilov.

A spokesman for the mission didn't respond immediately to calls and a text message from the AP seeking comment.

The resignation amounts to a rare, if not unprecedented public admission of disgruntlement about Russia's war in Ukraine among the Russian diplomatic corps, at a time when Putin s government has tried to quell conflicting narratives about how the special military operation is going, as it is officially known in Russia.

Bondarev told the AP that it is intolerable what my government is doing now. I have a share of responsibility as a civil servant, and I don't want to do that. Bondarev said he had not received a response from Russian officials yet, but added: Am I concerned about the possible reaction from Moscow? Asked if some colleagues felt the same, he added: Not all Russian diplomats are warmongering. They are reasonable, but they have to keep their mouths shut. He suggested that his case could be an example.

If my case is prosecuted, then if other people want to follow, then they wouldn't, he suggested.

The Russian military personnel had been heard by Ukrainian intelligence and others criticizing the invasion of Ukraine and in some cases abandoning the mission, according to reports last week.

In his English-language statement, he said to about 40 diplomats and others, Bondarev said those who conceived the war want only one thing : to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoy unlimited power and complete impunity. He rebuked Russian Foreign Ministry for pointing out the growing lies and unprofessionalism in the Russian Foreign Ministry and took particular aim at Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who he said in 18 years went from a professional and educated intellectual to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world that is Russia too with nuclear weapons! Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not concerned with diplomacy. It is all about hatred, lies and warmongering. Bondarev told the AP that he had no plans to leave Geneva.

Hiller Neuer, executive director of the advocacy group U.N. Watch, said Boris Bondarev is a hero. Bondarev should be invited to speak in Davos this week, and the US and the EU should lead the free world in creating a program that encourages more Russian diplomats to follow and defect, by providing protection, financial security and resettlement for diplomats and their families, he said.