Vice President Hamilton Mourão (PRTB) rejected, this Wednesday (23), the possibility of Brazil following Russia’s gesture and recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed separatist republics of eastern Ukraine.
On Monday (22), Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the rebel territories of Donetsk and Lugansk and announced the deployment of troops to those locations — triggering sanctions from the US and Western allies of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) — , although it later retreated.
“I think that’s difficult, it’s not from our vision of international relations. We always advocate the sovereignty of countries, and this issue of separatism is something complicated”, declared the deputy, when asked if there are chances of Brazil also recognizing Donetsk and Lugansk.
“We always thought that, for there to be a separation of this nature, there would have to be a plebiscite, something like that, so that an ethnic majority expressed the will to separate from the country to which it belongs,” Mourão continued. “We have several countries with problems [com movimentos separatistas]like Spain, and that cannot be taken the way it is being taken”.
On Wednesday, Putin said he was willing to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the crisis with the West, as long as the “interests and security” of his country are respected, which, for him, are “non-negotiable”. On the list of demands is, for example, canceling the possibility of Ukraine and other former Soviet republics joining NATO.
Until Mourão’s speech, the Brazilian government’s position on the crisis had been expressed on Monday (21) by the country’s ambassador to the UN, Ronaldo Costa Filho, during a session of the Security Council.
On the occasion, the Brazilian diplomat defended an immediate ceasefire, as well as the “comprehensive withdrawal of troops and military equipment on the ground”. However, Costa Filho did not mention Putin in his speech and avoided any specific condemnation of the Russian decision to recognize the territories and occupy them militarily.
With this, Itamaraty is trying to balance itself on the delicate international board and not get upset with the Putin government. Russia is Brazil’s partner in the BRICS — a bloc also formed by India, China and South Africa — and was the destination, last week, of a visit by President Jair Bolsonaro.
In the interview this Wednesday morning, Mourão assessed that tensions in eastern Ukraine should not escalate into a wide-ranging conflict with Western countries. Speaking about the crisis, the deputy said that he sees no predisposition on the part of the Western powers to “take things to the last consequence”.
He also said that Russia – a country which he initially referred to as the Soviet Union, until he made the correction in the sequel – would achieve the desired strategic objective by achieving the separation of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the Donbass region.
