The war affected me and my family on many levels. Most of all, it moved me closer to Ukraine and pulled me away from Russia. I don’t want to hear what Russians say about the war, they usually try to educate me about European history. But for the first time I hear Adélie Pojzman-Pontay asking razor-sharp questions to a seemingly friendly Russian diplomat in person and I laughed out loud. in my kitchen preparing for dinner. Her questions are good, it’s very relevant burning questions I would ask myself, although, I could never put the words so neatly as she did. His responses unremarkable, still the fact that these questions were asked, in public, in real life, is a significant achievement. And the fact that we have full audio recording is a historical artefact of a great significance.
Transcripts taken from Overcast and corrected by yours truly.
Adélie Pojzman-Pontay: Sorry to cut you, but, like… The way to improve British-Russian relations is to stop the war in Ukraine. Why don’t you retreat? You had a ceasefire in Oleshky to protect civilians. And yet, a week later, you bombed an aid distribution center in 55 people I killed?
Roman, Russian Diplomat: If we are speaking about bilateral relations of the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. What Ukraine is about? It’s a third party. The bilateral relations are just Russia and the UK. So we need to start dialogue, and hopefully, one day, it will start. And Ukraine is a separate issue.
Adélie: Again, you have invaded Ukraine.
Roman: That’s how you call it. We don’t…
Adélie: What do you call sending tanks across an internationally recognised cordon?
Roman: We call it defending Russian speaking people in Ukraine, people who think who are close mentally to Russia, and who consider themselves as part of the so called Russian speaking world, who may be Ukrainian citizens and live in a country called Ukraine, but who are close to Russia, who want to have friendly relations with Russia.
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Adélie: What do you say to the fact that most native Russian speakers in Ukraine, who had no problem with speaking Russian before 2022, have actually now stopped speaking Russian, and do no longer want to speak it?
Roman: But how do you know? Have you, yourself, been to Zaporizhzhia, Dnieper, Nikolaev, Odessa?
Adélie: Actually, I have each all of these places, yes.
Roman: To one of these? Which one?
Adélie: I have been to Odessa. I have been to Mykolaiv. I’ve been to Kharkiv. I have been to Kiev. I’ve been to Bucha, Irpin, Rivne, Chernihiv.
Roman: Well, that’s nice, then tell me the way you saw it.
Adélie: Yes, I saw destruction.
Roman: And you spoke to Russian-speaking people who stopped speaking Russian?
Adélie: I did. Lots of them. Lots of people across Ukraine, every single one of my trips. I’ve gone four times.
Roman: It’s difficult for me to imagine this, but unfortunately, I haven’t visited the cities that you have mentioned. So you have more experience in this.
Adélie: Yeah, so one of us actually has been on the ground and has spoken to people, the people you claim to liberate.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant comeback. Personally, I don’t think that Roman went to this meeting without a direct order from his superiors. He was very well prepared repeating propaganda I heard and read so many times, it makes me sick to my stomach. But this particular answer he didn’t expect. He is a diplomat, probably raised in safety of Moscow. He was sent to London as his first assignment. He probably raised in a very well-connected political family. In London he meets a real journalist who was risking her life on the ground. Phenomenal, just phenomenal. I am so glad she was able to get him nervous. He says that “I hope you won’t publish ‘something terrific’ (meaning horrific). I would place a bet he didn’t realise that he had been recorded, or he didn’t realise that the interview would be published as it is. No edits, no editorial. For him such an idea doesn’t even fit in his tiny and dense Russian head.
