– Kerry’s ignorance in RT blunder unthinkable for Cold War era politician (Voice of Russia, April 25, 2014):
US Secretary of State John Kerry has threatened Russia with more sanctions, blaming it for the escalation of violence in Ukraine.
Nevertheless, Kerry failed to mention Kiev’s military operation in the country’s east. In a surprise address on Thursday, Kerry dismissed any possibility that population of the eastern part of Ukraine might be not happy with the results of the coup that took place in earlier this year and with those who took power by force in Kiev. Kerry described pro-federalization activists as people armed with weapons “of the latest issue from the Russian arsenal and speaking in dialects that every local knows come from thousands of miles away.”
A political analyst Dmitry Babich told Voice of Russia his opinion on this subject.
So, let me please have your comments on Mr. Kerry’s remarks?
Mr. Kerry obviously speaks the language which has originated thousands of miles away from Donetsk and from Ukraine. So, to hear him differentiating the dialects of the Russian language… And the problem is that people in Donetsk speak Russian. This is a Russian-speaking region and very rarely you hear people speaking Ukrainian there. So, I think he just talks about things he doesn’t understand.
I’m pretty sure that I know the Russian dialects better than Mr. Kerry. And I’m pretty sure that when he said it, he based his information on what he has heard from some of the biggest liars in today’s world, namely the Kiev Government.
From the very beginning, from his first visit to Kiev he said stupid things based on what he has heard from the Kievans. For example, you remember what he said in Kiev in winter, when maidan activists were still replacing police. Kerry then said: “Who tells you that there is violence and crime in Kiev?! I was driven around Kiev in a car today and there was no violence. So, there is no crime in Kiev”.
You know, that reminded me of Mark Twain. John Kerry is certainly now behaving like a character of Mark Twain.
And his other statement today that RT is “a Russian propaganda bullhorn”, which was deployed by Putin in order to misinform and distort… Well, even during the Cold War it was considered to be a bad taste among the officials, including the foreign policy officials, to attack individual mass media, because if this is a propaganda bullhorn, don’t talk about it.
– Yes, that used to be the policy, that you diplomatically just didn’t mention anything. And of course, there’s been another visitor this week. We are coming to the end of a very busy week. Biden was there as well. This was an extraordinary visit. He said some very strange things.
– Yes. And I would say that if Mr. Kerry was just an epitome of respect to journalists in his “bullhorn” speech, then Mr. Biden was an epitome of generosity. You know, he offered the Ukrainian people $50 million, which is just about $1 per Ukrainian, or maybe a few cents more, because there are 46 million people living in Ukraine. I think that is a record of generosity. Mr. Biden should be given a medal as the most generous American. And Mr. Kerry should be given a medal of a friend of the press.
The Western media, not the RT, but the BBC and the Washington Post, the NY Times, in their reports from east Ukraine, they quite a number of civilians (not the so-called gunmen who occupied buildings, but just people on the street), who say that they are not happy neither with their salaries, nor with their lives under the new Government. They are not happy with this new Government’s cultural policies. They are scared of the violence that brought this Government to power. And these are genuine grievances.
And somehow Mr. Kerry just dismisses them all. He says that there is absolutely no evidence of anyone being unhappy about his life in eastern Ukraine. And he says that these protesters in east Ukraine should disband, because it was agreed in Geneva. He doesn’t care that Maidan protesters continue camping in the center of Kiev. He doesn’t care that the city administration of Kiev is still occupied by people who have portraits of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. And there is a huge portrait of him hanging in the city administration of Kiev.
He doesn’t care about that at all, he just wants the pro-Russian units to disband and he says that the Geneva accords are “it is not vague, it is not subjective, it is not optional”. But the problem is that, first, the east Ukrainian protesters were not invited to Geneva. Their voice was not heard. Russia tried to make a case for them and all of these attempts by Russia were dismissed. The Americans and the EU said that these are all your agents and you have to get them away from the streets, because you can do it.
I’m not sure Russia can do it, because these are the Ukrainian citizens who are not happy about what is going on in Ukraine.
And another thing I think we should point out is that here in Moscow we do get a lot of information from family members who have people there. I mean, we are hearing all kinds of things one could more or less say first hand.
And we have people coming to Moscow from Ukraine, because there is no work in Ukraine, because people don’t feel secure. And I’m pretty sure that we – Muscovites – have a better communication with the average Ukrainians than Mr. Kerry has thousands of miles away in Washington. And we have somewhat tighter historic ties to Ukraine.
It is just amazing how people like Biden or Kerry, or Nuland think that they can talk about things they simply don’t know. Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire before the US appeared on the face of the Earth. Actually, 150 years before the US became a nation.
The next week is going to be another busy week or will things look differently as the May 1 approaches?
Well, so far there no good signs, because Obama expects only Russia to make concession. I think the situation can get worse. And also, we shouldn’t forget 6 people died yesterday. They were killed by the Ukrainian military. The Ukrainian citizens were killed by the Ukrainian military! This is a tragic situation and Mr. Kerry should speak about this and not about RT, which he doesn’t understand.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_04_25/Kerrys-ignorance-in-RT-blunder-unthinkable-for-Cold-War-era-politician-3264/