Here are 5 things about Ukraine and Russia that Putin and Tucker never wanted to talk about
Disgraced former Fox host Tucker Carlson ended his interview with Russia’s Vladimir Putin last night, and it landed with a bang. For two hours, Tucker sat blankly as the dictator ranted about everything from his historical revisionist views of Russia and the Soviet Union to the shockingly incomplete details of his invasion of Ukraine.
Indeed, for an interview between one of America’s most pernicious disinformation agents and a war criminal with an international arrest warrant, the exchange was bordering on boring. Everything Putin says will be old news to anyone who has read the Russian president’s statements or listened to his speeches on Ukraine. All of them are readily available and widely translated into English. We were surprised at how boring the interview was, but Putin would never allow anything other than softball questions from his flexible interlocutors. Real Russian journalists, both domestic and foreign, danger prison—Or even worse.
But Tucker went too easily, so Even President Putin I was bored. Either that, or he enjoys tormenting useful idiots and flattering supporters (remember) This strange exchange between the Russian president and his own intelligence chief?). At one point, Putin actually said the answer to Mr. Tucker’s question was “easily found on the Internet,” but then the indifferent dictator simply offered Mr. Carlson, “Let me look into it.” So, in that spirit, here are five things you can “easily find on the internet” about Ukraine and Russia – things Presidents Putin and Tucker would never want to talk about.
During the interview, President Putin referred to Russia’s withdrawal from Kiev in 2022 as a voluntary act of goodwill. However, the Russians did not generously withdraw from the Ukrainian capital. They were forced to retreat by Ukrainian forces. And when they retreated, they left behind a massacre.
In the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, Russian forces captured several suburbs of Kiev, including Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomelu. In Bucha, Russians murdered over 400 people in cold blood, including children and the elderly. Many people were tortured, and soldiers fired painful bullets into victims’ arms and legs. before delivering the fatal blow. new york times picked up satellite image It revealed that civilians were slashed to death in the streets and their bodies left for weeks. Bucha’s coroner, Serhiy Kaplyshny, reported: “We picked up about 30 bodies a day. 13 of them were men with their hands tied and shot in the head at close range.”
In Irpin, Russian troops massacred many people. 300 civilians.And in Hostomel, the Russian occupiers He shot and killed the town mayor, Yuri Priribko. While he delivers medicine to his constituents. The Russians killed another civilian who was accompanying Priribko, and then a third person who tried to help his stricken neighbors. Sadly, these are just a few examples of the first few weeks of Russian attacks. Moscow’s atrocities well documented And it continues to this day. As Ukraine liberates more territory, it is inevitable that more war crimes will come to light.
President Putin has been quite transparent about his belief that Ukraine is an artificial state. He didn’t explain to Tucker exactly what this belief would actually be, and Tucker didn’t bother to ask. War does not only mean the physical devastation of Ukraine, but also attempts to destroy the country’s social and cultural fabric. One of the most despicable measures used by Moscow for this sinister purpose is the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and its proxy Belarus.
As of July 2023, the Kremlin reported that it had moved 700,000 Ukrainian children To Russia.This corresponds to more than 1.5% of Ukraine whole The same goes for the pre-war population, both children and adults.another 2,400 people were taken to Belarus, According to the Yale Humanitarian Institute. These children have been separated from their families, but contrary to Russia’s claims, many of their parents are still alive. Not only that, their ties to Ukrainian language and traditions were severed, and they were replaced by “patriotic” Russian-language education.
Abduction of Hundreds of Thousands of Ukrainian Children and Moscow’s Russification Efforts It amounts to an act of genocide. It is a blatant attempt to wipe out Ukraine’s national assets. And President Putin obtained an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
Speaking of the International Criminal Court, President Putin did not voluntarily declare the fact that he was wanted for war crimes (I mean, who would?), and Mr. Tucker also confronted him about it. There wasn’t. However, in March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued the following judgment: arrest warrant He condemned the Russian dictator and Maria Lvova-Belova (with the Orwellian title of Children’s Rights Commissioner) for their involvement in the illegal deportation and deportation of young Ukrainians.
Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC (although the United States and Ukraine are also not parties). The latter recognized the jurisdiction of the court for crimes committed within its territory).However, over 100 countries have They are legally obligated to arrest Putin if he crosses the border.
This number includes South Africa, which has a Russia-friendly government and is a member of the BRICS bloc, along with Brazil, Russia, India and China. This created an uncomfortable situation for Putin, who was scheduled to visit Johannesburg for the BRICS summit last summer. South Africa’s leaders have acknowledged that arresting Putin would be tantamount to war, and most countries are unlikely to handcuff the Russian leader. But nevertheless, traveling abroad has become more awkward for Putin. In the end, I chose not to go to South Africa.. In fact, since the beginning of the Ukraine war, the Russian president’s overseas travel schedule has been significantly postponed. Not to worry.Putin stole so much money from the Russian treasury that he can now relax in Russia The multi-billion dollar palace he chose.
4. Mariupol Massacre
Russia’s siege of Mariupol on the Azov coast reduced the city of more than 400,000 people to an almost abandoned hellscape. One of the most horrifying atrocities on the hotly contested list was the Russian Air Force’s March 2022 bombing of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater, where more than 1,000 civilians were evacuated at the time.
Russian troops didn’t just attack buildings full of non-combatants.It’s true that they did that complete knowledge Who was inside? Pilots flying fighter jets over the city would have been able to see “дети” (Daiti)—It means “child” in Russian and is written in giant block letters. They are located on either side of the square adjacent to the theater.
initial report The death toll from Russian airstrikes is estimated to be around 300. Within a few weeks, it became clear that: at least twice as many people were killedmainly women, children, and the elderly.
Of course, this is just one example of Russia’s horrific actions in Mariupol. Mariupol remains under Russian occupation, so it will be some time before we know the full extent of Russian atrocities across the city.
5. What does “denazification” actually mean?
Tucker Carlson never challenged the premise of President Putin’s self-proclaimed mission to “denazify” Ukraine. For the past decade, Russia’s dictator has used denazification as a pretext to wreak havoc on the territory of its smaller neighbour, and he brought up this objective multiple times in a two-hour interview published Thursday. Ta. Carlson also did not ask what Ukraine’s war with the fictional Nazi regime would mean for the country’s Jews.
You may know that Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy is Jewish, but the country is also home to Europe’s largest Jewish community. Israeli journalist Sam Sokol estimates the pre-war figure at around 70,000, but tens of thousands more have Jewish ancestry.
Since 2014, and especially since February 2022, this population has been the target of attacks. The Russian army is damaged and Destroyed multiple synagogues, jewish schooland culture center.Even the Russians attacked Uman city, despite the war, it remains a place of pilgrimage for devout Jews. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Jews serve on the front lines alongside their non-Jewish compatriots.Several Israelis with ties to Ukraine also volunteered to join the fighting. against the Russian invaders.
Talk about denazification of Russia is cynical and dangerous disinformation. In fact, President Putin’s actions pose the most immediate threat to the security of Jews and all people in Ukraine since the march of Hitler’s forces more than 80 years ago.
To say that these five items that Putin and Tucker conveniently glossed over are just the tip of the iceberg would be an incredible understatement. Although Tucker considers himself a journalist, fans like Elon Musk praise him as a champion of free speech. Of course he’s neither. It’s just vulgar propaganda that has passed its prime. He could not spare a word for his nominal counterparts, countless others. Ukrainian and Russia Reporters that Moscow persecutes, imprisons, and kills just for doing their job. Mr. Tucker and Mr. Putin discuss 2014, but not about the “Little Green Men,” the unmarked Russian soldiers sent to Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Mr. Tucker asked Putin about Christianity, but he did not ask him about Christianity. Destruction of churches in Ukraine by Russian troops. He did not ask about Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Donbas by Russian-backed separatists.Just two years ago, in a courtroom in the Netherlands. convicted in absentia Suspected of murdering three Russian intelligence agents for participating in the incident. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Tucker did not ask about Russia. interference in American politicsinflamed tensions in the country and energized Carlson’s core audience of vitriolic and disaffected viewers.
I was able to continue. A comprehensive review of the Kremlin’s record, something Mr. Tucker never considered and Mr. Putin would never allow, is a 12-century quasi-historical rambling about the origins of Russia and Ukraine. It would be much more overwhelming than cramming all of that into one meandering 30-minute lecture. Therefore, consider the above to be a starting point. Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin expect you to take their words at face value. stop it.
Open the book. Open a book, preferably by a qualified historian or political scientist. I recommend Serhii Plokhy’s book. the last empire and Russo-Ukrainian war. Take Timothy Snyder’s public online courses The origins of modern Ukraine. Or if you’re short on time and want to know the truth about Ukraine and Russia, remember that, in Putin’s words, “you can easily look it up on the Internet.”
Uriel Epstein is the CEO of Renew Democracy Initiative. Evan Gottesman is his RDI chief of staff.