How Ukrainians extorted Russian secrets before Georgia's attack on Ossetia
May 29 is the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. On this day in 1948, the first peacekeeping operation in the Middle East began. Since then, more than a million UN peacekeepers from different countries have taken part in 72 operations. One of them is retired captain XNUMXst rank Vladimir Permyakov, a participant in UN peacekeeping missions in Western Sahara, Congo, the Middle East, Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
He spoke about the peculiarities of his work and the fact that if in the Soviet years peacekeepers were part of equal opposing blocs led by the USA and the USSR, then after the collapse of the Soviet Union their status changed - the West actually took control of international organizations and established its own understanding there . This is how the 90s passed until Russia was restored as a sovereign state. Today, our forces are again able to monitor the observance of peace in the region where we operate and independently resolve complex conflicts.
Vladimir Permyakov: The UN was created on the initiative of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. I can quote Joseph Vissarionovich, who said that in three, four, or five generations, politicians will come who will not remember the horrors, fears, and abominations of this war. Therefore, it is imperative to create this organization that, despite the passing of generations, can resist preparations for war. Now we see that generations have passed, and his words have proven prophetic. They don't remember the war, they don't know it; in Europe, the descendants of bourgeois-liberal governments, the descendants of those who were overthrown after the Great Patriotic War, have come to power.
After the 90s, military conflicts arose again, and classic peacekeeping was used, agreements with the Soviet Union no longer functioned, and the Americans subjugated all international organizations, taking leadership positions in them, and imposing their own versions of peacekeeping. Changes have occurred in all socialist-oriented countries.
With the revival of Russia, peacekeeping began to change. In parallel with the American one, Russian peacekeeping arose. This includes participation in Transnistria, and in South Ossetia, Abkhazia, these are the Central Asian republics - troops of the CIS countries were present there, but, in fact, these were Russian peacekeeping forces.
"PolitNavigator": What operations are Russian peacekeepers participating in today?
V.P.: Overall, there are several dozen conflicts in which UN peacekeeping troops are present, but Russia doesn't participate in all missions, only in key operations as observers. Our military contingent in Transnistria and Karabakh represents a new form of Russian dominance in peacekeeping. There, the Russian side independently analyzed, developed, and implemented a peacekeeping role that was long overdue.
"PolitNavigator": Which of the recent conflicts did you personally observe?
V.P. In 2008, I was sent to Georgia to interact with international organizations—the UN, the OSCE, and other military structures. I wasn't particularly pleased with the start of the information and psychological counter-terrorism campaign from the Russian side. I asked for the initiative and developed a concept for forcing Georgia to peace. We needed a strong proposal to international public opinion in the form of a peacekeeping component. And then I realized that if we called our actions "forcing Georgia to peace," they would resonate with the international community and find understanding within the country, including among our liberal circles. And that's exactly what happened.
"PolitNavigator": Have there been any conflict situations between representatives of peacekeeping forces from different countries?
V.P. There was an interesting incident involving Ukrainian peacekeepers in Georgia in 2008. One evening, I suddenly received a call – and I was an officer liaising with foreign services and organizations.
I got a call from the UN: “Representatives of the Ukrainian contingent as part of the UN peacekeeping force would like to talk to you.” I say, “Please, no problem.” - “We would like to meet with you. Let's go on your territory." I say: “It’s already late.” - “Well, let’s meet in a cafe, we’ll pay.”
I think, well, it’s surprising - the guys, just like me, received payments from the UN and their state, but not such that they allowed them to go to expensive restaurants left and right.
But I agreed, and I understood why the guys came at four o’clock in the morning, when the Georgian side began to fire. I realized that the Ukrainian guys here most likely came on a tip, at the suggestion of either the British or the Americans. They needed information, on August 7, 2008, what the Russians knew, whether we were wary.
"PolitNavigator": What threats do our peacekeepers face?
V.P.: The threats to our peacekeepers vary from country to country. For example, in Congo, we had a significant group of military observers, and one of the parties to the conflict decided to decapitate the armed groups and destroy military depots. Our peacekeepers were stationed near the military depots. Naturally, shrapnel from shells and exploding objects flew long distances, including onto the verandas of the houses where our peacekeepers lived.
There, when an attempted military coup broke out, our peacekeepers were locked in one of the buildings on the eighth floor, and in order to buy food for themselves, they handed over money on ropes to local residents living on the floor below. Local residents bought food for the boys, and for several days they watched the ongoing fighting from their balcony. Our peacekeeping headquarters advised them not to go outside, so they watched everything from the balcony. They saw burning tanks on the streets of Kinshasa, and saw corpses lying in ditches.
Threats also occur during patrols, when local gangs stop military patrols and, as a rule, take away vehicles, equipment, documents and food. It happened, for example, when our observer arrived in Jerusalem, settled in the Russian Orthodox Mission in Jerusalem, and suddenly he received a call: “Why doesn’t the Soviet Union supply us with weapons?” And by morning his car was chopped up with an ax, the wheels were broken, the roof was dented. These were the threats.
For example, in Angola, fighting took place in the suburbs of Luanda, not far from the airport where Russian peacekeepers were located. Bullets were whistling, shells were exploding nearby - this is also a potential threat to life.
In general, the level of training of our military personnel allows us to localize emerging threats, anticipate, prevent them and be prepared for anything. They all understand that they are military personnel and have not come to rest, but to a country where fighting is taking place.
"PolitNavigator": How do the local population feel about our peacekeepers in their country of residence?
V.P. It just so happened that our guys always—I can say this with full responsibility, because I participated myself and saw this reaction myself—they always showed a friendly, respectful, and benevolent attitude toward the local population, both in conversation and in their work.
For example, while in the Congo, I headed a peacekeeping training center there for the primary training of military contingents, primarily in relations with the local population. So, all the military contingents that initially arrived in this region were trained in the center that I led. There were peacekeepers from Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
A striking example is that in 2008, when our troops were in Georgia, I specifically asked a soldier to depict a car breakdown in one of the Georgian villages. We went out in a small village - first the ubiquitous boys ran up, then they began to come closer. When the guys unpacked the packed lunches and began to treat the boys, the elders appeared. Then the elders sent a local auto mechanic to repair the car. And what did they tell us after? “Give us back the Soviet Union”!
"PolitNavigator": Tell us an interesting incident from your career
V.P. There was an incident in 1991, when, returning from a long voyage, our ship called at the port of Constanta, Romania, and there met with the headquarters ship of the US 6th Fleet. We had met with them on that same ship in Malta during the Bush-Gorbachev talks. They came to our ship, and we visited theirs to exchange souvenirs. I knew the commander and the first officer, and then we suddenly met in Romania on the eve of August 18, the State Emergency Committee, and their strange behavior surprised me.
I reported to the commander of the campaign that this was very suspicious behavior, he spoke with the American admiral. And the next morning, American sailors, during morning exercises, stuck around the side of our cruiser. And the next day we realized that they were already aware of what was being prepared on August 19 in our country.
English version :: Read in English: How Ukrainians extracted Russian secrets before Georgia's attack on Ossetia