A Russian politician goes on TV, tells the truth and it’s news — both because it happens so rarely and because the message so sharply refuted the official Kremlin line of denying any involvement in the war against Ukraine.
Russian opposition politician Leonid Gozman, during a live talk show, blamed Russia’s government and public for the nearly three-year-old war in eastern Ukraine that has killed about 10,000 people.
Gozman was appearing on the “60 Minutes” program on the state-owned Russian TV channel Rossiya 1 on Feb. 5.
Russia instigated the war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in April 2014, sending Russian troops covertly to take over police, security service and government offices around Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
As documented by overwhelming evidence, the Kremlin later sent in tanks, artillery and other weapons and ammunition to ignite the war, along with regular soldiers disguised as mercenaries. Russian troops also shelled Ukrainian army units from across the border and Russian regulars took part in major battle victories against Ukraine – Ilovaisk in 2014 and Debaltseve in 2015.
But despite the abundant evidence, the Kremlin has always denied involvement. Even many Russian liberals incorrectly label the conflict in Ukraine as “a civil war.”
So it came as a welcome surprise to fans of truth when Gozman, who heads the Social Movement Union of Right Forces of Russia, openly blamed Russia on a live-broadcast talk show.
“This terrible war, with victims on both sides, with atrocities and violence – it couldn’t last for more than a day if we didn’t support, with arms, money, and people, these so-called leaders of these (separatist) republics, who from my point of view are simply criminals,” Gozman said.
He added that one of the separatist leaders, Russian citizen Denis Pushylin, used to be a regional manager of MMM, a notorious financial pyramid scheme in the 1990s, whose founder Sergey Mavrodi was jailed for the fraud, but tried to revive it on his release in 2011.
Gozman also said that Oleksandr Zakharchenko, another separatist leader, “was selling chicken before the war,” and the former separatist warlord, Russian citizen Igor Girkin, who played an important role in the beginning of the war in 2014, was “a Russian criminal who for no apparent reason just showed up” in Ukraine.
A Russian opposition politician Leonid Gozman openly blames Russia for war in Ukraine during a live talk show on the state-owned Russian TV channel Rossiya 1 on Feb. 5. “Because this horrible war with casualties, ugliness, and violence from both sides would not continue for more than one day if we didn’t support it with weapons, money, and people,” Gozman said.
Girkin, who is also believed to have participated in the Bosnian and Chechen wars as well as the annexation by Russia of Crimea in March 2014, is widely believed to be a Russian intelligence officer.
The Donbas war saw a spike in violence on Jan. 29, when Russian-backed forces attacked the Ukrainian army near Avdiyivka, a government-controlled city just in some 10 kilometers north of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.
At least 20 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were killed in the following week before fighting eased.
Gozman blamed not only the Russian government but also Russian citizens for allowing the war to continue.
“We have nothing to do there, our guys have nothing to do there. And the fact that we are supporting people like Zakharchenko is our – and yours as a Russian citizen – responsibility,” Gozman said, addressing the host of the show.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government wanted to keep the war in Ukraine going to win domestic support.
“Our government gets a lot from this war,” Gozman said. “They get the consolidation of the society, they get an enemy… Having an enemy is important because they need to explain why we have such a bad life.”
The hosts allowed the government critic to speak without interruption for four minutes, which is extremely unusual for talk shows on Russian state TV. Mostly, Kremlin critics are shouted down by program hosts and other guests. Some critics are even physically assaulted.
