On the LinkedIn social network, he describes himself as “diplomat in exile”, resides at ” nowhere “ and indicates to be open to any job offer. Boris Bondarev had almost disappeared since May 23 and the spectacular announcement of his resignation from Russian diplomacy, which he faithfully served for twenty years, from the very beginning of the Putin era, after having followed the classic path (MGIMO , Moscow State Institute of International Relations). The man now lives somewhere in Switzerland, with part of his family that he managed to get out of Russia. He is under the protection of the Swiss federal police, pending political refugee status.
Are you afraid of reprisals after your defection? Critics of the regime sometimes meet tragic ends.
I try to think about it as little as possible. Besides, I’m not sure I’m a big enough fish for the Kremlin to care about. Either way, what’s done is done, and I accept the consequences, whatever they may be. It was my moral duty to speak openly about the shame that this war represents for Russia, because for twenty years I spoke only in commissioned service. And the more time passed, the less pleasant it was. Especially in Geneva, where relations between Russian and Western diplomats have become increasingly stormy in recent years. I am relieved to be able to say what I think, while my former colleagues continue to multiply belligerent declarations in Geneva, at the UN, everywhere.
Is the Russian diplomatic service from which you come still at the level of its former prestige?
During the 1990s, Russian diplomats were very poorly paid. Many of them left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to earn money elsewhere. Of course, it is the best who left. A quarter of a century later, we are still there: the level of executives is no longer what it was. Moreover, diplomacy is only an instrument at the service of a government’s foreign policy objectives, it is its mirror. If you aim for cooperation and harmonious relations with others, then your diplomacy will support you. If, on the contrary, you want to confront certain countries or even the whole world, if you want to impose your will on others, she will comply. She can be firm, rigid, inflexible. Even rude, or even vulgar: what we are currently witnessing in Russia. Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s aggressive spokesperson, is the embodiment of this posture. Russia is now a foil.
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