Former MI6 officer: Russia rejects Ukraine’s sovereignty

Watch Former MI6 officer: Russia rejects Ukraine’s sovereignty - AlArabiya English on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Chris, what do you make, Christopher, of these characterisations?

00:04Do you think that Putin wants peace?

00:08I think everyone wants peace on their own terms.

00:11And the trouble is that peace has to go with justice in order for it to be long-lasting and durable.

00:18And going back to the basics here, the fact is that in 1991, Ukraine voted for independence.

00:25And in fact, all the regions of Ukraine, including Crimea, did so.

00:30In a free and fair election.

00:32And then in 1994, that was recognised and codified by the Russian Federation, amongst other countries, in the Budapest Memorandum,

00:40by which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in order to have territorial guarantees from those powers.

00:47And those powers included Russia, and Russia should obviously honour that agreement.

00:52And the problem is, of course, that if Russia's not prepared to honour that agreement,

00:56what agreement is Russia actually prepared to honour?

01:01And going forward, I think the problem is that, as Sergei was saying, you know, Putin certainly,

01:06and people in the Russian leadership, regard Ukraine as part of Russia,

01:12and the same people with the same background, and not as two independent sovereign states.

01:18And there are many organizations, governments, and all this department are forcing them to not declareitution,

01:21and they need, and then all thisers are just positions in.

01:23That's why we'll try to interfere as people with their new