Simply blaming Russia for Ukrainian crisis 'naive & dangerous’ - British MP

While Russia gets a tremendous amount of scrutiny in the UK, Ukraine almost has no scrutiny in the parliament and media, says British Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski, adding that the Ukraine crisis remains a stumbling block between Moscow and London.

“It is shortsighted not to engage with Russia – however uncomfortable such conversations might be,” the British Foreign Affairs Committee says in a report. 

The UK lawmakers dubbed ties with Moscow "the most strained since the end of the Cold War."

RT got some thoughts about the report of British Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski.

Kawczynski sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and helped draw up the report.

“First of all, there were very hugely contrasting and polarizing views amongst the committee members as to the evidence that was presented before us. And ultimately the report is a compromise between some of those views,” he said.

“What I took away from this experience of studying Russia over the last twelve months in the course of writing this report and having been to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but also visiting the frontline in Donetsk, is for me how disconcerting and ironic it is that the issue which is leading to the greatest difficulties between our two countries namely the Minsk II agreement, the UK is not actually participating in itself,” Kawczynski continued.

In his view, the UK “has almost absolved ourselves from that and we’ve left it to the French and the Germans to work with the Ukrainians and the Russians to try to resolve it.”

READ MORE: Russian Embassy welcomes MPs’ calls for dialogue amid ‘deplorable state’ of UK relations

Kawczynski said he hopes the new government under Prime Minister May “will do more to lend support to the Minsk agreement, so that a major European power like us - one of the countries that are permanent members of the Security Council - can try to throw its support and weight in trying to resolve what is the biggest stumbling block to improve relations between us.”

Asked about the UK Foreign Office stance on relations with Russia, Kawczynski said that “whether it is the Foreign Office or whether it is members of parliament or whether it is journalists in the UK, the key thing which I want to convey is that there is a huge amount of scrutiny on Russia and a lot of criticism, and a lot of robust assessment [in the UK].”

At the same time, the British MP continued, “Ukraine seems to almost have no scrutiny - neither in the parliament, no in the British media.”

“If you look at British media extensively, the BBC and newspapers, there is very little critique of Ukrainians,” he added.

Kawczynski argued that blaming the Russians for a “tragic set of circumstances” in Ukraine “is not only naive in the extreme but also highly dangerous.” In his view, more needs to be done “to get the two sides around the table and try to resolve this situation.”

“It is in nobody’s interests for relations between the West and Russia to continue as they are. And I think politicians in this country and also in Russia have a duty and responsibility to work together to try to resolve Minsk II as soon as possible and get back to normal relations,” he told RT.