Arkady Dubnov: "In the propaganda sense, Ukraine certainly won"

"Purely emotionally I am striking in the evil excitement of Russian sailors with whom they attack the unfortunate tugboat. They know for sure that they will win and no one will answer them. This suggests that a significant part of the Russian military is so pierced by hatred for Ukraine that he is ready to fight her seriously." The resource of war "was quite high, and this became the greatest surprise for me," the journalist notes in commentary for me to commentary for me "Daily magazine."

"Our officialdom has already stated that this is a provocation of the Ukrainian side aimed at raising the rating of President Petro Poroshenko to the elections coming in March next year.

It is impossible to argue with this statement, of course, there is a significant part of the truth in it. In the same way, Putin strengthened his falling rating of the war in Syria. In our space, in general, all the war contribute to the growth of the popularity of the authoritarian leader. But if we go into the definition of what provocation is, then Ukrainians managed to provoke a discussion of the question that Russia does not comply with the international treaties signed by it.

In the same way as it was in the case of the annexation of Crimea, when the Kremlin violated two basic contracts: the Budapest Protocol and the friendship agreement. So now. It is obvious that, prohibiting the free passage in the Kerch Strait for Ukrainian ships, that the civilian and the military, Russia violates the 2003 base agreement on cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in the Azov and Black Seas. After the annexation of Crimea, Russia looks at it differently, but no one else has changed its position, and no one denounced this contract.

It is clear that the Ukrainians went there quite consciously, expecting some kind of reaction of the Russian side. You can condemn the Ukrainian chiefs who knew the nature of their Russian substitutions and had to count on the most extreme measures, up to the firing for defeat, which was demonstrated. And here we could talk about the value of human life in the eyes of the Ukrainian leadership, sending sailors to such actions. But, perhaps, they went to this intentionally to show the irresponsibility of the Russian leadership in relation to the contracts signed by them.

The UN Security Council today will not make any decision, any resolution will be blocked by the sympathies of one or another side. But in the propaganda sense, Ukraine, of course, won. You can pay attention to the fact that the leaders of our Foreign Ministry only talk about the provocation and the desire of Poroshenko to increase their rating, but, in fact, they do not discuss the nature of the incident.

They do not mention that Ukraine had all the rights to the passage and do not talk about the rules of shipping in this region of the World Ocean. Why? Because the position of Russia in this regard is absolutely insolvent, and it is impossible to hide it. "