Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "Inside the country backing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - BBC Newsnight visits Serbia" video.
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@josephinwood : It’s always hard to know if your interlocutor is really who they claim to be, though your channel seems to be real enough? That is the tragedy of the age we live in; one of trolls, misinformation, propaganda and downright lies, all dressed up to look like something . . . other.
Taking you at your word, which I read within hours of you replying but was hesitant to respond to (for the above stated reasons), I would first congratulate you on your excellent reporting and for drawing a wider audience’s attention to the fact that the war in Ukraine is not happening in a vacuum, but is having unlooked for consequences globally.
I would question that editorial decision, however? It was the first question that leapt to the front of my mind and, though I cannot speak for everyone, I feel sure that there must have been many who thought the same things? Especially those in your audience who, like me, were adults at the time of the bombings and witnesses to the mounting international pressure for the west (Tony Blair in my country’s case) to respond.
Surely it was THE pertinent question? The hypocrisy seems so stark? And I believe it is in the interests of the viewers to hear how these people who claim victimhood at alleged atrocities, holding up pictures of innocent children, etc, to hear the answer to the main question: HOW do these people reconcile the difference between what they were doing to an entire race with what happened to them?
I can see many arguments for why the bombings were wrong. Mostly due to the fact that they wouldn’t have been necessary had the UN forces on the ground not been so reluctant to intervene earlier. Some arguments are more valid than others; and yet others, mere red herrings. I heard all of those at the time. But these were in the process of genocide. Do they even know WHY they were bombed?
You say you put that to some of these people. I would dearly wish to know how they answered? What their level of honest awareness was (and is?) and whether they value some lives more than others? Were they ignorant of the genocide? I am curious as to how that editorial conversation went too? But, I understand why you may not be able to discuss that fully.
But, surely this type of, “911,” style remembrance, transformed into abiding bitterness by propagandists, can only be occurring in a place where people have either been given false accounts of the reasons for the bombings, or they simply don’t know or care to know?
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@normanrichardson2314 : Yeah, they’ll learn what it’s like in a Russian prison, if they don’t get robbed, raped and murdered before reaching their cells. This generation of Russians have had all courage, honor and sense of decency bred out of them. They’re like confused children. They know their, “constitution,” says that private military groups are banned, with stiff penalties for those who create and run them, yet Wagner’s website says it’s a, “consultancy,” firm. The sheer hypocrisy gets cancelled out by the constant bombardment of mixed messages on state TV and from their, “politicians.” “War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery.” Orwell tried to warn them. Too late now.
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@aronkracsun : The answer to that is simple. They have and they do. And, what they find is that there are about as many Nazis in Ukraine as there are in the UK or America. And those that were gathering strength a few years ago have found that strength undermined by prosperity. Nazis only do well when a country is in crisis; usually economic. Now, everyone in Ukraine is pro-Ukraine and they know that the money won’t stop rolling in once the war is won. They have a huge cue of American and European businesses, keen to develop the fossil fuels (enough to rival, if not outstrip, Russia’s supplies) like Shell, BP, Exxon, etc, who were all there prior to the war, finding massive reserves and trying to establish contracts with the Ukrainian government, before they were either intimidated or bombed out of the areas; there are also chemical, agricultural and other industries in which Ukraine stands to lead the world. Does that answer your question?
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@vojspetar3796 : If you read his comment, above, you can see that the journalist, Joe Inwood, acknowledges that very fact, the he has, “just scratched the surface.” And he says that tough decisions had to be made in the editorial process about what to include. While I don’t agree with their choice, as I expressed, I do understand that there might well be more going on in that process than I could understand, with regard to protecting their ability to keep reporting from there, their ability to build trust with the people of influence in the media there (such as the editor he included in the piece) and other factors that I may have no way of knowing or understanding. Therefore, we have to allow some level of trust?
I cannot speak to the statistics in Serbia, but from what you’re telling us, your country is deeply divided on the issue of Putin. Is that fair to say? And, from the reports we’re getting, it seems like the people who support Putin the most in Serbia are also the people who are influencing Serbian media the most. Would you say that is true?
If the majority of Serbians are against Putin’s war in Ukraine, and against Putin more generally, they appear to be keeping quiet about it publicly? Were you an adult at the time of the bombings? Did you witness the genocide? What can you tell us about the truth in that regard? Do Serbians remember the atrocities? Do they talk about that?
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@GriuGriu64 : No, that’s a lie, son. “Don’t believe what people say, believe what they do.” If Russia wants peace, it could stop attacking Ukrainian positions, before even considering leaving Ukraine. It is Russia attacking the sovereign citizens of a foreign country right now. Just saying, “Let’s have peace talks,” because they’re losing, which is a ruse to buy time for rearmament, is a trick they’ve pulled too often. No one trusts Putin any more because everything he says is a lie. At least in the west, only half of everything our politicians say is a lie. Even you don’t believe you, kid.
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