“Never have I been so ashamed of my country. They want only one thing - to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity”. These were the comments of a veteran diplomat who offered his resignation in disgust at the leadership of the country.  “It is all about lies and hatred,” he insisted, “it serves only the interests of the few, the very few, thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country.”

You could be forgiven for assuming these comments refer to Malta’s Labour leadership.  But this was Boris Bondarev, a veteran Russian diplomat at the Russian mission to the United Nations.

“When you see that your country is doing the worst things and being a civil servant you’re somehow related to that, it’s your decision just to terminate your connection with the government.  We all must be responsible.  And I don’t want to have any responsibility for what I don’t approve of,” Bondarev added.

Bondarev is a shining example of principled courage.  Despite the obvious risks to his own life, Bondarev spoke up.

Defying Russian officialdom inevitably leads to imprisonment or worse.  The country has passed legislation making it a crime punishable with 15 years’ jail to call their military operation in Ukraine a war.

A respected former Russian colonel, Mikhail Khodaryonok, openly criticised Russia’s military campaign.  “Let’s not take information tranquillisers” he warned. “To pretend that Ukraine’s armed forces are nearing a crisis of morale is frankly false - that’s not even close to reality,” he boldly declared. “The situation for Russia will get worse,” he predicted, “the whole world is against us even if we don’t want to admit it”. The former colonel’s daring statements on national Russian TV did not go unnoticed.  He must have been called in to explain himself.  On the following day, on the same TV show, he was playing a completely different tune.  “When people talk about Ukraine being able to counter attack it’s a big exaggeration, we will give Ukraine an unpleasant surprise,” he announced. Putin has his ways of keeping his people compliant.

In the middle of Moscow and surrounded by Putin’s henchmen, Khodaryonok could be forgiven for contradicting himself and his honest outburst and for retracting his realistic assessment of the military situation in Ukraine.   His life and that of his immediate family were at risk. It makes Bondarev’s audacious stand even more admirable. Despite the risks he stood his ground.

Here, things could not be more different. None of that daring fearlessness. Only the meek humility of the cowed serf driven by the principles of submission. The great Evarist Bartolo bragged in a recent interview that he told Joseph Muscat to fire Konrad MIzzi and Keith Schembri - even in their presence. “You said it to them face to face?”, the journalist asked. “Yes that’s how it should be done,” he chuckled to himself. “So why did you vote in favour of Joseph Muscat in that vote of confidence?” “I did that to be able to keep my place in the party,” he replied. “So it was a strategic move?”  “Of course,” Evarist Bartolo replied. “I had a survival strategy,” he confided with Tim Sebastian in that notorious Conflict Zone interview.  Bartolo shamelessly insisted he wanted to save his skin - and in the process paved the way for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Bartolo simply watched in silence saying nothing openly, except for his obscure veiled comments.  He certainly did nothing. Joseph Muscat disabled his whole cabinet, placing a belt over their mouth.  They all claimed they privately objected, but they all toed the line. They all followed the party whip.  Evarist Bartolo who now bandies his bravado in his insipid interviews, smiled too readily, was too timid to articulate openly his supposed disgust at his colleagues’ despicable actions, tried too hard to please.  He’s still at it.  “And I’m happy to say Robert Abela made huge strides forward,” he fawned.  A bootlicker will always be a bootlicker. What he’s after is pretty obvious. “There’s talk of you becoming the next president, do you want it, would you accept?” the journalist asked.  In his ridiculously cryptic style, the self-styled Galileo, groveled: “What I want right now is to be able to spend the rest of my days working for the benefit of the country”. Bartolo cannot distinguish between what is of benefit to the country and what is of benefit to himself.

Working for the benefit of the country is easy. Speak the truth for once. Answer honestly the questions you’re asked. Stop covering up, stop saving your skin, stop sucking up.  “Who were the other Labour MPs pressuring Muscat internally?” Mark Lawrence Zammit asked him.  “I don’t know all of them,” the coward deflected without naming even one.

As he dodged and hid and deviously covered up for his mates - as he’d always done, the journalist bizarrely congratulated him - “Thank you for answering our questions”.

Bartolo represents the appalling decline in courage that is the most striking feature of our time. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote that “since ancient times, declining courage has been considered the beginning of the end’.  Bartolo’s cowardice contributed to the preservation of Muscat’s rotten regime.  Bartolo’s compliant blind obedience represents the harmful behaviour that has not only become the norm but which is trumpeted as some noble virtue to be emulated - the unity that guarantees the continuity of destruction.

Bondarev, on the other hand, represents the moral courage that willingly encounters risks to defy an immoral order and to defend the values of truth and justice.

One piece of unsolicited advice for Bartolo - listen to your grand-daughter and spare us. We have far too many limp politicians entirely devoid of a spine - we don’t need one more.