Lavrov challenged by journalist

I can't imagine our own FM Murray McCully allowing himself to be publicly challenged in this way. In fact I can't think of a journalist here capable of doing it.

But Russia is a dictatorship - lol

Sergei Lavrov Grilled Live on Air by Famous Russian War Reporter (Video)

The Russian foreign minister has a hard time explaining to the satisfaction of one reporter why Russia lost Ukraine

Translated by Julia Rakhmetova

RI comment: Two points - First, questioning this aggressive to the US Secretary of State, or even a spokesperson, is simply unimaginable. Even more unimaginable is actually receiving frank answers. Second, Sergei Lavrov is genuinely disgusted by the proposition of war between Russians and Ukrainians. Behold, the Russian "aggressor state" with "no press freedom."

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Daria Aslamova is a living legend of modern Russian journalism. A long-time correspondent for Russia’s most popular daily newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, she has reported from many hot spots on the territory of the ex-USSR (Donbass, Chechnya, Abkhazia, Nagorno Karabakh, Tajikistan), but also from places as far away as the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Rwanda, etc.

Aslamova stars during this live online interview. Even such an experienced diplomat and savvy polemist as Lavrov has a hard time answering her questions on why Russia is so inept at exercising soft power, and why the Russian embassy in Kiev was hardly visible before and during the Maidan while Americans were everywhere.

Decide for yourselves whether the Russian press is a tool of official propaganda or the fourth branch of government it is supposed to be in a democracy.