The conference on Ukraine in Switzerland will definitely not bring peace anymore, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is convinced. According to the Swiss newspaper, the new conditions put forward by Vladimir Putin to end the conflict, although they may seem “unrealistic”, will have to be taken seriously. Because the majority of the Russian population agrees with these demands and the failed meeting in Switzerland will not change the Russians’ minds.
“Russia is doing everything it can to make the peace conference on Ukraine in Bürgenstock look bad,” says the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In the newspaper’s opinion, Moscow has indeed succeeded in this. Thanks to “tactically clever” statements that Russia was not invited to Switzerland, that it was “not allowed to speak”, it managed to convince “non-Western states” that a Western conference without Russia would not end the fighting in Ukraine.
China, Saudi Arabia and South Africa were dissuaded from full participation in the conference. “Those who will come to Switzerland but share Moscow’s scepticism about the event, such as Turkey or India, must now present the Russian point of view and become Russia’s eyes and ears.” Because of this, expecting the meeting on Ukraine to make any impression on the Russian leadership and population is “completely unrealistic”.
Russia’s new statements on the conditions for peace in Ukraine should also be seen in the same vein, the Swiss publication said, announcing them on the eve of the meeting in Bürgenstock. “Moscow wants to participate only in a negotiation process based on the consideration of Russian interests.” The publication lists the conditions for peace in Ukraine named by Vladimir Putin – recognizing Crimea* and 4 regions as Russian**, the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops beyond the administrative borders of these regions, and Kiev’s rejection of NATO – and calls them “undoubtedly unattainable”.
“Putin shows no real desire for peace,” the Neue Zürcher Zeitung believes, “otherwise he would not have set completely unrealistic preconditions for it.” At the same time, the newspaper recognizes that this is far from being the opinion of Putin alone. “The majority of the population (in Russia. – Inotv) actively or at least passively shares anti-Western sentiments.” Because of this, even if “a request for an end to the ‘special operation’ may arise in society, the majority will not be willing to give up the already annexed territories in eastern Ukraine.”
“A return to the conditions before 24 February 2022 is unthinkable in the foreseeable future, neither within Russia nor in relations with the West,” the newspaper continues, because of will have to listen to what Putin says. According to Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the central message of Putin’s Friday statement on Ukraine was “the desire for a new world order.”
“For Russia, the cessation of hostilities against Ukraine must be accompanied by a reorganization of Europe’s security policy.” And no amount of support for Ukraine will change this aspiration because “in the view of Putin and experts close to him, Western support for Ukraine is an expression of desperate clinging to the old, already lost world order.”
Western observers may consider these ideas unrealistic, confused or even ridiculous, but it would be better to take them seriously,” states the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, because “Putin’s Russia is convinced of the rightness of his actions, and the past two and a half years have strengthened his position.”
* Crimea became part of Russia after an overwhelming majority of the peninsula’s residents voted in favor in a referendum on 16 March 2014 (InoTV note).
** The Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, became part of Russia after an overwhelming majority of their residents voted in favor in a referendum held from 23 to 27 September 2022 (Inotv).
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