The Russian journalist and analyst Konstantin Eggert (Moscow, 1964) denied this Friday that the invasion of Ukraine is related to a threat posed by the NATO military alliance to Russia, as President Vladimir Putin has stated.
Eggert visited Chile as part of a Latin American tour together with Kirill Martynov, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europa, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize; Pavel Andreyev, member of the board of directors of the NGO Memorial, distinguished with the Nobel Peace Prize 2022.
In interview with The counterEggert stressed that Ukraine is not a member of NATO and will not be one in the immediate future. “It’s a pretext, a ridiculous argument,” she said.
real reasons
Eggert has a long journalistic career: he is an analyst on Russian affairs for Deutsche Welle, an international broadcaster in Germany, where he also hosts the Russian-language talk show ‘Trending’. Between 2016 and 2018, he worked for TV Rain, an innovative independent television channel from Russia. He also worked for Kommersant, Russia’s oldest private media group, as well as in the business sector. Between 1998 and 2009 he worked for the BBC World Service, and from 2002 to 2009 he acted as the Head of the Moscow Bureau of the BBC Russian Service.
Although he admitted that Russia has borders with some NATO countries, such as the Baltics, Norway and Poland, he pointed out that most of them do not correspond to members of the military organization.
Eggers pointed out that the reasons for the conflict are several: Putin’s desire to “write his name in history”, “to avenge the fall of the Soviet Union” and “to make Russia great again”; “to distract the masses from the internal problems of the country”, and also to guarantee the “survival” of the Putin regime itself.
The analyst also highlighted that there is an erroneous belief, in his opinion, that Russia today is like the former Soviet Union.
“Their leaders acted collectively and made decisions in the interest of the country. Putin is different. Putin and his allies not only rule Russia, they also own Russia.”
In this sense, he pointed out that the heads of the Rosneft oil company and the Gazprom gas company are all friends of Putin, as are those responsible for the arms and diamond trade.
“So all the decisions they make are not so much in the interest of Russia, but in their own interest,” he said.
long conflict
Eggert also stressed that the conflict between the two countries did not start last year, but in 2014, when Russia took over Crimea.
In this sense, he points out that nine years of propaganda against Ukraine and the West inside Russia paved the way for public opinion in the largest country in the world to support last year’s invasion. “But the world wasn’t paying attention,” he lamented.
Now the war is shown “as a war against the West”, because that makes it possible to justify any action.
Regarding which part of public opinion supports the invasion, Eggert points out that it is impossible to say. In his opinion, due to the country’s repressive history, Russians fear the state and often don’t say what they really think in polls, compounded by official propaganda amid what “is essentially a dictatorship.” .
Public opinion
“Many people do not want to know anything about this war, they want to be left alone and for Putin to decide. Because knowledge implies action,” he exemplifies. “They don’t support the war, but they don’t oppose it either.”
He added that currently the war is present mainly on television “where they tell the Russians that the war is going very well and that Ukraine will fall tomorrow”, but it is not something that is noticed in the big cities.
As for the duration of the war, he points out that it is impossible to determine, and he believes that Putin will continue as long as he can, without major operations, while he sees that Ukraine will not back down either.
Russia has a tradition of long-lasting conflicts, as evidenced by the First and Second World Wars, and others after the fall of the Soviet Union, such as the Chechnya war (1994-1996 and 1999-2009).
Economic impact
Eggert admitted that the war, even on an economic level, is not felt for now, despite Western sanctions, because Russia has been able to redirect its exports to countries like China and India.
“Even if he sells his oil at deep discounts, he still has money to finance the war and his secret service, and give public employees raises, pensions and scholarships to look good among the population,” he explained.
Despite last year’s inflation, which stood at 14%, he pointed out that in 2022 Russia had a fiscal surplus due to high oil and gas prices. Eggert estimates that Putin will be able to carry on for a while, even if the economy falters in the medium term.
For the analyst, the greatest damage and challenges for the economy are in the importation of high-tech goods, such as microchips and semiconductors, necessary in the arms and aeronautical industries.
To this is added that a million Russians left the country last year, including numerous specialists in computer issues. Now the government is trying to get them back.
Freedom of the press
Finally, for Eggert there is no freedom of the press or opinion in Russia. “You can’t even call war war,” he says.
The journalist denounced that people have even been prosecuted and convicted for debates carried out on social networks.
This explains why several media outlets have left the country and continue their work from abroad, as is the case with Novaya Gazeta, which is currently based in Europe.
Source: Elmostrador
