A few days ago RIA Novosti, a pro-Russian government state-controlled media outlet, published an article entitled What should Russia do with Ukraine? It was written by Timofey Sergeytsev, an influential commentator who has worked on the Presidential campaigns of Mikhail Prokhorov in Russia and President Yanukovych in the Ukraine.

In it he states that "the special operation revealed that not only the political leadership in Ukraine is Nazi, but also the majority of the population. All Ukrainians who have taken up arms must be eliminated - because they are responsible for the genocide of the Russian people".

He clarifies this by stating: "Denazification means de-Ukrainianisation. Ukrainians are an artificial anti-Russian construct. They should no longer have a national identity. Denazification of Ukraine also means its inevitable de-Europeanisation."

He argues that "Ukraine's political elite must be eliminated as it cannot be re-educated. Ordinary Ukrainians must experience all the horrors of war and absorb the experience as a historical lesson and atonement for their guilt".

He then lists the tasks which must be undertaken by Russia, including the liquidation of Ukrainian armed forces and all supporting infrastructure; the formation of an anti-Nazi (read pro-Russian) government; the installation of a Russian information space; a mass investigation programme into Ukrainian war crimes and support for the Nazi regime; forced labour, imprisonment and death sentences for all accomplices of the "Nazi regime"; and the creation of permanent de-nazification bodies.

Timofey Sergeytsev places the conflict in the context of the eradication of US subjugation and western totalitarianism and their ungrateful treatment of Russia after all that Russia has done for the west by way of providing alternatives to capitalism.

Given that President Putin has also spoken about the need to de-nazify Ukraine, and that Ukraine isn't a real country, perhaps the Government might like to summon ambassador Filatov to explain whether this represents official Russian government policy?