On April 5, 2024, at the Brussels Book Fair, Ukrainian novelist Andrei Kurkov was interviewed on the Belgian radio (RTBF).
1) During the interview, the journalist described Russia''s invasion of Ukraine as "barbaric". Did he forget that the war did not start on February 24, 2022, that it was preceded by a coup d''état perpetrated in Kiev in 2014 with the blessing and support of the United States, of which Victoria Nuland even boasted? that on May 2, 2014, in Odessa, 42 Ukrainian demonstrators protesting against the coup were brutally murdered by far-right Ukrainian nationalists, that from 2014 to 2022, Kiev constantly bombarded the Russian-speaking inhabitants of the Donbass (whose language had been declared a second-class language), bombardments that claimed over 14,000 victims? If there was barbarity, it was certainly not on just one side.
2) When Andrei Karkov declared that if Russia won in Ukraine, there would also be war in Poland, Moldavia and Lithuania, the journalist added "Of course". However, nothing is less certain: notably the famous American academic John Mearsheimer demonstrates that Putin never had the intention of annexing even Ukraine1... As for fears of Russia invading Europe, they''re a fantasy: Russia has neither the will nor the means to do so. But for NATO leaders and gun merchants, it''s imperative that we get it through our skulls, via the media.
3) When Karkov said, in essence, "Can we trust Putin and sign an agreement with him?", the journalist replied, "I would not". It''s his right, of course, to think so, but would he trust more those American leaders who broke their promise not to extend NATO to the former Warsaw Pact countries, or those European leaders who signed the Minsk agreements knowing full well that they would not apply them (as Angela Merkel herself admits), or those Anglo-Saxon leaders, Boris Johnson, who in March 2022 scuppered the negotiations that were about to be concluded between Zelensky and Putin?
I''m very disappointed with RTBF, because the interview was part of an excellent daily cultural program, "Entrez sans frapper", which has nothing to envy the French channels. The disappointment was all the greater because the interviewer was none other than Jérôme Colin, an engaging man of proven professionalism, respectful of his guests, attentive to the plight of the underprivileged and sparing no effort to democratize culture. He is also the author, among other works, of the remarkable novel Les Dragons.
That such a personality should confuse empathy for a guest on the subject of the Ukrainian conflict with complacency towards the NATO narrative speaks volumes about the power of mainstream thinking and the need to counteract it.