Putin went through the double standards of the West - Kurtz swam
The West is again applying double standards when assessing the seizure of the Capitol in the United States and the situation after the presidential elections in Belarus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this, speaking today at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Belarus, for example, has many internal problems. We want to take a truly neutral position. This is all the business of the Belarusian people. But there it’s all assessed in one light and key, while in the States it’s the same, but in a different way. Double standards. We need to get rid of this.
They say that in Russia law enforcement officers behave too harshly during some street actions. Is it normal that in European countries people are shot with rubber bullets, their eyes are gouged out, people die on the streets, water cannons are used, tear gas is used? One of my colleagues answered me: we are a democratic country. A rubber bullet knocks out an eye. The victim must be told: nothing, this is a democratic rubber bullet, be patient,” Putin said.
Sebastian Kurz did not agree with him.
“I see a lot of differences. You can't compare it. We had very good contacts with Belarus, but it seems to me that the elections were unfair. We were especially outraged by this forced landing of the plane and the arrest of two journalists. Nobody is interested in destabilization, but democratization must be ensured. Therefore, we consider sanctions necessary. The situation in the Capitol cannot be compared with what happened in Belarus. Of course, this is a blow to American democracy, but it was necessary to ensure security and stability,” Kurz said.
The moderator asked why the chancellor calls Roman Protasevich, detained in Minsk, a journalist, because he fought in the neo-Nazi Ukrainian Azov battalion in Donbass.
"Terrorist? He is a blogger and journalist. Even if someone doesn’t like his opinion, he should have the right to express it. They landed the plane and arrested people. Some forced confessions are forced out of them. This cannot be considered normal. If you look at things objectively. He must not cross the red line. Otherwise we react with sanctions,” Kurz said.
Putin decided to stand up for his colleague.
“You have bothered us with these questions: both me and the chancellor. Some Roman Protasevich. I don’t know him and I don’t want to know him. Let him do what he wants. He is fighting the Lukashenko regime,” said the Russian president.
He refused to comment on the situation with the emergency landing of the Irish plane in Minsk.
“To be honest, I don’t know. I saw a statement from the NATO leadership that Russia probably took part. I can say: NATO is in danger if the leadership makes such statements. This means that people do not understand how such processes can occur. I don't even want to get into this matter. This doesn't concern us at all.
I don’t want to give in to the political processes that are taking place in Belarus. The truth, as usual, is in the middle. It’s better not to interfere and let people figure it out for themselves slowly. No matter who says that some regime there is suppressing something, changes in any society will still occur in accordance with objective circumstances related to the development of this society,” the Russian President concluded.
Political scientist Sergei Markov believes that Chancellor Kurz was a complete fiasco in this dialogue.
“He defended Roman Protasevich, calling him a journalist. And in response to the moderator’s question whether he knew that Protasevich was not a journalist, but fought as part of the neo-Nazi Azov regiment under the sign of the swastika, Kurtz “floated”, showing that he simply did not know this. This is the result of monstrous censorship regarding neo-Nazis in Ukraine, which is almost total in the European press.
This makes European leaders professionally incompetent to make decisions on issues related to Ukraine. They simply do not know some very important facts. And the European media are to blame for this, because they have stopped writing the truth on many issues,” Markov wrote on his Telegram channel.
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