I think this “journalist” is some kind of leading figure in the media world? Watch this and notice how he puts a double-bind on the Russian MP. Watch how he demands that the Russian MP explain himself but when he does (e.g. crimes of the Kiev regime against people in Donbas) he talks over him or abuses him and then cuts him off for “not accepting the obvious”.
He sort of responds to the point about abuses of Russian people in Donbas by saying that “this is not what is happening. What is happening is a sovereign country is defending itself from your invasion”. That is, he overrides the point the Russian MP is making with his “obvious facts”. In reality of course; there was a real problem with Donbas. A third of the population are ethnic Russian. Within the LDNR there probably was a majority desire to join with Russia or at least become independent. Zelensky could not fulfil Minsk because he was prevented from doing so by the paramilitary Azov battalion – a group designated as undesirable by the US Congress. But these facts (the Minsk agreement is not a figment of Putin’s imagination) are brazenly vaporised. As My Popov says – the journalist is living in a mythological world.
The journalist keeps saying “you won’t explain why you invaded Ukraine” (even when Popov tries to) – but in fact there was no invasion. As the very distinguished Professor of International Relations, John Mearsheimer, points out – there was no way anyone intended to invade Ukraine with a force of the size of the initial attack force. It was an operation to secure Donbas and either achieve regime change or put pressure on the government in Kiev. But “invasion” has gone down in the book from which all the Western journalists parrot their propaganda so “invasion” it is.
This material is sub-journalism. The man is operating at a pre-rational level. More than anything else it is sad.
But there is another point here – and the reason for this post. One of the reasons/excuses Lavrov gave for starting the war was that Russia cannot get their point of view across in the Western media. They are just blanked when they try to communicate. This is a case in point. I don’t imagine Mr Popov will be in a hurry to speak to the Western media again. I’ve seen a very similar charade happen on DW when, again, a well-known anchor, abused a Russian political expert with all the “war crimes” claims and clearly acted as if he were actually in battle with the enemy, rather than let him speak.
We cannot solve a problem without openly discussing it. Hurling these made-up self-righteous myths about a “democratic” Ukraine and ignoring everything they say at anyone brave enough from Russia to come on the air will lead them to close off even more. These journalists are doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing. Instead of letting the other side speak they are just abusing them and spraying myths at them. They are acting like aboriginal poets chanting the people into some tribal war. But this is the 21st century. I am in despair.