from the editors
The presenter had argued on Russian TV that Ukrainian children who oppose Moscow should be “drowned or burned”; Ukraine’s foreign minister had protested, and Twitter blocked the TV account before Krasovsky apologized: “It happens, I got carried away”
Russian television RT – formerly known as Russia Today – is not known for broadcasting balanced content about the Moscow-Kyiv conflict (which, for the Kremlin – hundreds of days and thousands of dead since the invasion began – is not even “a conflict “, but a “military special operation”).
But even to this broadcaster, Anton Krasovsky’s words must have seemed exaggerated. So much so that RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan today announced the journalist’s suspension.
But what had Krasovsky said? He had suggested – live – that “Ukrainian children should be drowned or burned” before making horrifying remarks about the rape of Russian soldiers, to reiterate that “Ukraine should not exist” and that “Ukrainians who oppose Russia should be shot”.
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Krasovsky, 47 and formerly in various Russian newspapers (from Kommersant to Yandex), took part in the 2011 presidential campaign for oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov. In 2013, his coming-out made headlines – “I’m gay and I’m human, just like President Putin and Prime Minister Medvedev” – but then he openly moved to pro-Putin positions and not only supported the war in Ukraine, but also the law against gay propaganda in Russia and by posting a video on social media of him dancing on October 10 after learning of rocket attacks on several Ukrainian cities.
However, Krasovsky’s suspension – to tell the truth – only came after Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived to announce those disturbing phrases to the world.
“Anton Krasovsky’s statement is wild and disgusting,” said Simonyan, who did not notice anything unusual in his presenter’s words during the show. “Perhaps Anton will explain what temporary madness he has caused,” these words.
No “temporary madness,” Krasovsky himself declared: he found at least a questionable formula for his apology. I’m “very embarrassed” to have been “carried away,” he said, before adding, “Well, it happens. You’re in the air, you’re getting carried away and you can’t stop. I apologize to everyone who was surprised by this ».
After all, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, commented on Krasovsky’s statements as follows: «What should he apologize for? Just to state the obvious, to tell the truth, in a way befitting his manners and level of education? He is an extraordinarily talented person. The purpose of this deliberate attack is to demoralize him.”
October 24, 2022 (Change October 24, 2022 | 19:33)
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