Professor John Maguire:

I do not own shares in Mr. Philip McDonagh but his interview on this is extraordinary. He was the Irish ambassador to Russia and he says that we really need to step back from the way we have cancelled Russia. He spent five years working on the Irish peace process. He is not talking about picking out the good guys and the bad guys. He is saying we really need to develop an understanding of the situations affecting the countries involved, similar to what we did in the Irish peace process. He talks about the cancelling of all Russian culture and the breaking of the OSCE Helsinki guidelines on trade through the sanctions. He is not justifying Russia or saying he is in favour of it. He is saying these actions are shredding possibilities as regards the task of diplomacy. He puts it beautifully. He says it is the task of diplomacy to craft a possible situation the various parties can see a future in. That is what the peace process did. He is not an apologist for Russia. If you want to see someone saying there really is a way around this, it is Mr. Philip McDonagh in that interview on Cassandra Voices.