Russia has deviated from the framework of normal international behavior - Vike-Freiberga

RIGA - Russia has deviated from the framework of normal international behavior with its attack on Ukraine, former President Vaira Vike-Freiberga emphasized in a conversation with LETA.

She emphasized that this is not the time to sit down at long negotiating tables, go back and forth to Moscow, trying to please a person who is no longer in contact with reality.

"The West must understand that Vladimir Putin will act irrationally, unjustifiably, illegally, and will not comply with international law. Putin is not only dangerous for Ukrainians. I hope that the eyes of the Western world will be opened and the revelation will come that it can no longer pretend that everything will be fine. Diplomacy, as these events show, is indifferent to Putin," said the former president.

Vike-Freiberga pointed out that the attack on Ukraine is a manifestation of the Russian president's madness. According to her, Putin has been boiling in his own hatred for years, in his frustration and hurt narcissism, that people are not as afraid of Russia as they used to be of the USSR.

"No matter how big his land is, how much his income from oil and gas is, he never has enough. This man has the ambition of a black hole and fears that his country is not big and powerful enough as it is. Boiling in the juice of his hatred, he creates a narrative about history and the situation in a world that is becoming more and more distant from reality," said Vike-Freiberga.

The former President referred to the statement of former NATO Secretary General George Robertson that in 2002, when the NATO-Russia declaration was adopted, Putin had said that Russia recognized Ukraine's independence and that it would decide its own future.

"Over the past years, Putin and his closest thinkers have been increasingly shameless in their efforts to destroy Ukraine before this Russian invasion. From the beginning, we heard the denials of a Ukrainian nation, and in recent days we have heard that the Ukrainian state is an artificial creature that is not real at all. I believe that the president of this nuclear country is not in contact with reality," said Vike-Freiberga.

According to her, there will be bloodshed and suffering that is completely unnecessary, without logical and rational reasons. Russia's actions are a threat to the security of Europe as a whole and, consequently, of the world.