Just a few days before Russian President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to travel to India for a Dec. 4-5 state visit, three European ambassadors to New Delhi penned an hysterical diatribe attacking Putin as a war criminal, charged with launching an “unprovoked war” against Ukraine, and refusing to accept the peace terms demanded by the brain-dead Europeans. Entitled, “World Wants the Ukraine War To End But Russia Doesn’t Seem Serious about Peace,” and printed by the Times of India on Dec. 1](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/international/world-wants-the-ukraine-war-to-end-but-russia-doesnt-seem-serious-about-peace/articleshow/125675348.cms), the op-ed is signed by British High Commissioner (ambassador) Lindy Cameron, German Ambassador Philipp Ackermann, and French Ambassador Thierry Mathou.
This rage-filled screed never once mentions India or Putin’s visit, but implies that the Russian leader shouldn’t be welcomed in New Delhi. They proclaim that Russia’s “malign global activity shows us that the Russian leadership’s appetite for territorial expansion and global destabilization goes well beyond Ukraine.”
The backlash against their gross intervention into India’s foreign affairs policy wasn’t long in coming from angry officials at the Ministry of External Affairs and in intelligence. One senior MEA official, quoted by Opindia news agency, responded: “We see this as very unusual. It is not an acceptable diplomatic practice to advise India’s foreign relations with a third country. We have taken note of it.” Former Foreign Secretary Kandwal Sibal called the article “vicious” as it “breaches diplomatic norms” and “is a diplomatic insult to India as it questions our close ties with a friendly third country.” The article’s purpose, he said, is “to fuel anti-Russian sentiments in pro-European circles in India and question the morality of our ties with Russia.”
