MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2023) The Australian authorities have ruled out all prospects for the development of bilateral relations with Russia, which are at their lowest level in decades, but Russian diplomats are trying to convey objective information about Moscow's policies to Australians, Russian Ambassador to Canberra Alexey Pavlovsky said in an interview with Sputnik on Friday.
"In our case, partners (including Australia) who were not too optimistic about equal mutually respectful dialogue with Russia before have now simply crossed out all prospects for the development of bilateral relations," the ambassador said.
According to Pavlovsky, relations between Russia and Australia are "indeed at their lowest level in decades."
The ambassador added that since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, there has been an "open and unconditional hostility" toward Russia in Australia, with Canberra sharing the views of its "main ally," Washington, on inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.
Since February 2022, Australia has supplied Ukraine with $453 million worth of military assistance, the diplomat said, adding that 70 Australian instructors are training Ukrainian soldiers in the UK.
At the same time, Australians often show sympathy for Russia, Pavlovsky noted.
"We are trying to convey objective information to Australians about Russia, its policy and the essence of what is happening in the world," the ambassador said.
Speaking about trade and economic relations between Russia and Australia, Pavlovsky said that they are in practice blocked at Canberra's initiative.
"Under current conditions, their development is effectively blocked through Canberra's fault. The already insignificant volume of mutual trade decreased by 28% for the nine months of last year compared to the same period in 2021, to $617 million," the ambassador said.
According to the diplomat, several successful projects Australian companies had launched in Russia have been curtailed, and if cooperation between the countries ever begins to recover, Russia will have to take into account the unreliability of Australians as business partners.
Pavlovsky added that immigrants from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are enduring "psychological terror" in Australia, but a significant part of the Russian-speaking diaspora is standing up to that pressure.
