Boris Bondarev

Boris Bondarev is a former senior Russian diplomat who had been Counsellor of the Russian Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland from 2019. He started his career in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2002. Bondarev resigned from his position in May 2022 in protest over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Quotes

• 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 this year. The 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 with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospect for a prosperous free society in our country.

Those who conceived this 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, 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.

I regret to admit that over all these twenty years the level of lies an unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time. However, in most recent years,this has become simply catastrophic. Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysys and sober forecasting, there are propaganda clichés in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s. A system has been built that deceives itself.

Minister Lavrov is a good illustration of the degradation of this system. In 18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual, whom many my colleagues held in such high esteem, 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 about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy.

I studied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for twenty years. The Ministry has become my home and family. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless and absolutely needless ignominy.

• "Exclusive: Senior Russian Diplomat at U.N. Defects", UN Watch, 23 May 2022

• The invasion of Ukraine made it impossible to deny just how brutal and repressive Russia had become. It was an unspeakable act of cruelty, designed to subjugate a neighbor and erase its ethnic identity. It gave Moscow an excuse to crush any domestic opposition. Now, the government is sending thousands upon thousands of drafted men to go kill Ukrainians. The war shows that Russia is no longer just dictatorial and aggressive; it has become a fascist state.
• Putin has failed in his bid to conquer Ukraine, an initiative that he might have understood would be impossible if his government had been designed to give honest assessments.
  • "The Sources of Russian Misconduct", Foreign Affairs

Quotes about Boris Bondarev

• Boris Bondarev is a hero.
  • Hillel Neuer, executive director of the advocacy group United Nations Watch, quoted in "Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev resigns over Ukraine war, saying he has 'never been so ashamed of my country'", Sky News, 23 May 2022