Belarus Nobel Prize laureate: War in Donbas in on Putin’s account

The notorious Russian news resource Regnum has published an interview with the 2015 Nobel laureate in Literature Svetlana Alexievich in spite of her prohibition on reporting.

According to the Belarusian writer, the interviewer did not behave as a journalist, but as a propagandist. Moreover, Alexievich claims she okayed being interviewed by the publication Business Petersburg, not Regnum. The writer is set to find out why and how the text appeared on the Black Hundred resource. Here are some fragments of the conversation:

‘Coup d’etat’ in Ukraine

Journalist: There was a coup d’etat in Ukraine.

Alexievich: No, it was not. This is nonsense. You watch too much TV <…> Russian TV channels do their best to make people believe it was a coup d’etat. Democrats should have used TV, they underestimated it. The incumbent [Russian] government is putting everything it wants in people’s minds. It was not a coup.

About Chechen war

Imagine we assent to the opinion (although I still can’t do it) that people in Kyiv took to the streets voluntarily. But when people in Donetsk also took to the streets voluntarily, no one listened to them! Why does one support the former and discountenance the latter?

You did the same in Chechnya in order to save the state. And when the Ukrainians began to defend their country, you suddenly refreshed your memory about the human rights. You, Russians, were dealing even worse towards Chechens. I’m not a politician. But when the integrity of the state is questioned, when foreign troops enter its territory, it is a policy issue. By what right did Russia bring its troops in Donbas?

‘Pain and fear on Putin’s account’

People living in the south-eastern part of Ukraine consider themselves Russian and do not praise [Stepan] Bandera as a hero. They took to the streets to protest. And for some reason you think that people who live in Kyiv, have a right to protest, and those who live in the east, have no right.

Would you state that there were no Russian tanks, no Russian weapons, no Russian contractors [in Donbas]? If it were not for your weapons, there would be no war there. Do not feed me with nonsense which your head is full of. You fall for propaganda very quickly. Yes, there is pain and fear in Ukraine. But it is on Russia’s account, Putin’s account. You broke into another country, by what right? On the Internet there are millions of images of Russian military vehicles heading for Ukraine. Everyone knows who downed Boeing. We’d better finish this absurd interview, I feel absolutely done.

belsat.eu, photo Fabrizio Bensch/ Forum

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