On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine and began virtually without cause the most destructive conflict in Europe since World War II.
Four days later, the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria also attacked – the public space in our country with his speeches.
Our history, the Prime Minister, and the institutions, in general, came under fire from the words of the official representative of Moscow. Even sociology, after Ms. Mitrofanova cites “data” about the geopolitical moods in our country, without it being clear from what research she draws from them.
The government reacted to all the rules of diplomacy against the behavior of Eleonora Mitrofanova. He summoned her for explanations, handed sharp notes, and, as the most drastic step, took the Bulgarian ambassador to Russia for a face-to-face meeting, which according to an unwritten protocol is an invitation to the other side to do the same with its own.
Such bold and deliberately irritating behavior of a Russian ambassador to an EU country is no exception to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. It is especially visible in the case of Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who is already so often attacked in her social profiles that in Russia they pay less and less attention to her because there are far more serious and vocal competitors in propaganda.
Mitrofanova’s evolution – or rather a devolution – is a special case. Because this is exactly what is not expected from the former Deputy Director-General of UNESCO and 8 years head of Rossotrudnichestvo (responsible for Russia’s international scientific and cultural cooperation), that is, for the dissemination of music, art, science, a culture of the Russian people. , and in normal countries, this is an activity that tries to stay away from the politics of politics.
Not in Putin’s Russia, where indoctrination has taken over cultural centers, and foreign policy, according to many analysts, is already being done in the Kremlin, not by Sergei Lavrov.
Here are some colorful examples of the behavior of Russian embassies in various European countries since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
Greece
The Facebook page of the Russian Embassy in our southern neighbor is not inferior to that of Sofia. The official position of the Kremlin is supported loudly and selflessly with dozens of posts.
The West has been accused of spreading “false information” about the so-called “special operation”.
There is a lot of talk about the “Nazis” in Ukraine, and every statement is “supported” by footage from the official Russian media – RIA Novosti, Channel One, and others. There are interviews with a Greek volunteer who joined the Russian army or with Mariupol residents who talk about how Ukrainian tanks destroyed a school or how they had to evacuate the city to escape Ukrainian troops.
There is even a post about how the building of the drama theater in the city, in which more than 300 people died, including many children, was blown up by soldiers from the Azov group, and not by Russian bombs. The same is true of the maternity hospital, hit a few days earlier by a Russian missile.
On March 17, the Twitter channel of the Moscow embassy in Athens was blocked due to a published claim that the information about the Russian bombing of Mariupol was “fake news”.
Otherwise, on March 6, the Russian embassy angered the public in the country after advising Greeks to watch a certain TV channel to receive “objective” information. It is OPEN TV, owned by Russian-Greek businessman and politician Ivan Savidis, who has twice been elected to the Russian Duma by Putin’s party and has had influence in Greece and Thessaloniki in particular for years.
Italy
The official Facebook page of the Russian embassy in Rome is significantly more moderate than those in Greece and Bulgaria, although there are occasional allegations that news of Ukraine in the Western media is “fake news.”
At the beginning of the Russian aggression, Moscow’s ambassador to Italy did not fail to send a sharp email to the chairman of the foreign policy and defense committees of the parliament, as well as to all deputies. It highlighted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s threat to EU countries that sanctions against Russia “will not go unanswered”.Germany
The Russian embassy in Berlin published on social media a lot of news about German personalities, institutions, and organizations that have declared themselves in favor of maintaining good relations with Russia. As well as for cities that do not want to end their partnerships with Russian cities.
Propaganda videos of people in ruined Mariupol fleeing the “aggression of the neo-Nazi Ukrainian companies” are also being circulated by Russian diplomats in Berlin.
There are also posts in Russian about how Russians in Germany can get help if they are harassed because of their nationality. Many publications point out that such attacks on Russian citizens have become more frequent in the EU.
Romania
The Moscow Embassy in Bucharest also sent a note to the Romanian Foreign Ministry alleging violations of the rights of Russian citizens in the country. Russian diplomats say the social and property rights of some Russians have not been respected. However, when the Romanian Foreign Ministry requested details of specific such cases, no response was returned.
Spain
There is an extensive post on the Facebook page of the Russian embassy in Madrid about an alleged scheme for EU control over bio laboratories in Ukraine. It also mentions the son of US President Joe Biden, who had “sponsored 30 biolabs on behalf of the Pentagon” in the country. The source of all this “information” is the Russian Ministry of Defense. It has been refuted more than once, including by the United States and Germany.
At the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine, a video published on the embassy’s website caused serious controversy in Spain. In it, a woman on a black background echoes the Kremlin’s arguments in defense of Russia’s actions and accuses Ukraine of provoking the war.
In this sense, Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova is not an alone noisy player on the otherwise quiet front of diplomacy, but her colleagues have been more effective for some time, resorting to inappropriate irony. In London, for example, they tweeted with a thermometer buried in the snow with the text “Our relationship is below zero, but we are not afraid of the cold” or played with Russia’s international phone code (+7): “Does 007 mean that James Bond is a Russian spy? ” Not to mention that even now the official publications alternate every day with beautiful photos of Russian nature and Orthodox churches.
Mitrofanova’s problem is that in the year from the beginning of her term to the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, she did not appear much in public. When she spoke, her messages sounded as if she was trying not to maintain good relations with Bulgaria (as far as possible), but to set the tone and topics in the genre of a Soviet-era central news anchor in her last interview. 3 million Ukrainians fled abroad so as not to become a living shield of nationalist gangs) of pro-Putin circles in our country.
And to impress someone in Moscow with his attacks.
