The Peruvian press saw a sharp increase in the number of anti-Russia materials, many of which were fake claims, in late February that marked the one-year anniversary of the special military operation in Ukraine. As is customary, most of them were reprints of Western propaganda (BBC Mundo, AFP, AP, EFE and El País). Planted materials authoured by local reporters and articles written by their counterparts from Ukraine and the EU that were distributed by fan-out mail were published as well.

Most of the analytical, or rather, pseudo-analytical, articles in the Peruvian media contained such absurd assumptions and fantasies that one can’t help getting the impression that the authors not only didn’t bother to figure out what was happening in Ukraine and around it, but do not even have the most general idea of Europe’s history and geography. So, the Peruvian media wrote about the “assault of Soviet troops on Ukraine on February 24, 2022,” accused the Soviet Union of “attacking Germany in World War II,” called Kiev “the capital of the Moscow Principality in the 9th century,” and so on. These “experts” would benefit greatly from getting a textbook and studying it hard, or rather, focusing on matters in which they are versed, if any.

An article by the Peruvian columnist and ex-diplomat Ernesto Pinto Bazurco in Expreso dated February 20, Guerra en Ucrania: balance (Results of the War in Ukraine), in which the author tried to draw parallels between WWII and the special military operation in Ukraine, is the best illustration of this egregious ignorance. In particular, it directly follows from the text that the Soviet Union allegedly started the war against Germany (!), and “Ukrainians died in it when the Communists attacked European countries.” I wonder how this idea coincides with the fact that Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 without declaring war? The Third Reich unleashed WWII on September 1, 1939 and then occupied and enslaved most European countries. Without the Red Army and the Soviet Union, the world as we know it today would not exist. It was a common victory for all the Soviet peoples who fought against the German invaders. Any educated person, not to mention professional journalists, especially diplomats, must know these basic facts of history.

In the article “The War has not yet Ended, but Russia has already Lost” in La República dated February 24 a certain expert named Augusto Alvarez, without batting an eye, lied that on February 24, 2022, in his statement about the beginning the SMO, Vladimir Putin said that this was being done “with the goal of restoring the Soviet Union with a nationalist slant.” (!) The author believes that “Russia has not yet been able to seize Ukraine even though it planned to do so in one week. Russia is becoming increasingly isolated because Ukraine has decided that it will not be absorbed by Russia, but will be an independent state. Even China is now looking at Russia with apprehension.” At the same time, Senor Alvarez was too shy to cite in his article any statement by Russian officials regarding the reasons behind the SMO. Cooperation between Russia and China that is based on comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction is currently at an unprecedentedly high level. The author is unaware that despite the enormous pressure, threats and blackmail from the West, many countries are strengthening interaction and cooperation with Russia.

In the op-ed article titled “Year of War” in El Comercio dated February 24, a half-hearted attempt is made to review the conflict in Ukraine, but the authors arrived at an incorrect and biased conclusion and named President Putin the only person who is “responsible” for crimes against humanity in Irpin, Bucha and Borodianka and claimed that “Russia, like the leaders of the Soviet Union before, is threatening Ukrainian culture and the very existence of Ukraine.” At the same time, the article ignores the fact that modern Ukraine was entirely created and developed as part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is an integral part of Russia’s history, culture and spiritual space, where Russians account for a significant portion of the population and Russian-speakers account for an even larger part of it.

Another observation: the Peruvian publications hush up the fact that the developments in Ukraine are a proxy war that is being waged by the West against Russia at the hands of the Ukrainians, who have been turned into a means for undermining Russia’s statehood and sovereignty in order to inflict a “strategic defeat” on our country.

Also, on February 22, El Comercio and Expreso published editorials dedicated to President Putin’s Address to the Federal Assembly on February 21. The fact that Russia suspended New START caught the eye of the Peruvian commentators. The above materials make the audience believe that Russia is “threatening the world with nuclear weapons and withdrawing from the New START.”

In reality, Russia has always responsibly complied with its arms control and nuclear non-proliferation obligations and has been a consistent and reliable party to the NPT and other international agreements in this area.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry dated February 8, 2023 and numerous comments by the Russian Foreign Ministry on this issue have more to offer on Russia’s position on START. They have all been translated into English, many of them into Spanish, and posted on ministerial social media accounts. How anyone could fail to find and read these articles while researching this issue is hard to comprehend.

The decision to suspend New START (not withdraw from it) was caused by the unfavourable state of affairs with its implementation which took shape as a result of the US policy seeking to comprehensively degrade Russia's security and to strangle our country politically and economically, which clearly contradicts the principle of indivisible European security enshrined in the foundational OSCE and Russia-NATO documents. In fact, the United States has unleashed an all-out hybrid war against Russia, which is fraught with a direct military clash between the two nuclear powers.

As a reminder, the American side violated the standard inspection procedures. As a result of the anti-Russia restrictions imposed by Washington, Russia's ability to conduct unimpeded inspections on US territory was essentially blocked, which created obvious unilateral advantages for the American side.

Nevertheless, Russia reiterates its unwavering commitment to the START treaty as an important tool for maintaining international security and stability, and calls on the United States to realise the fact that there is no alternative to building relations with our country based on the fundamental principles of equality and a mutual consideration of interests.

The above articles also highlight the thesis that Russia allegedly refuses to hold peace talks with Ukraine. In this regard, we once again point out that Russia remains open to dialogue in order to resolve acute international issues based on the principle of peaceful political and diplomatic settlements of conflict situations, and promotes this stance at all international platforms, including the UN Security Council.

Russia’s objective security concerns in the context of the SMO in Ukraine continue to be ignored. At the suggestion of its Western curators, Kiev rejected the very idea of ​​opening a dialogue with Russia. In September 2022, President Zelensky signed an order making talks with the leadership of our country “impossible.”

Against this background, the Peruvian media that are influenced by the Western propaganda machine are abandoning the principles of impartial presentation of information, preferring instead to mislead their own audiences with stories of a “bad and evil Russia.” The local authors would better use this level of tenacity to talk about real, rather than fictional, as in the case of the alleged Russian issues, destructive actions of the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean.