Robert Fisk reporting from Douma (report filed 2 hours ago in the Independent) has basically blown apart May’s rationale for going all guns blazing. There was NO gas attack.
Kaiama
Of course there was no gas attack in Douma, just like there was no gas attack in England. Both were false flags, poorly planned and executed, with the White Helmets in Syria being given the task of movie directors, creating a third rate video. What is interesting is that during the past few days there were reports on the Internet of 200 US special forces being killed in Syria and 200 British SAS special forces being captured by the Russian military police. And of course we had Trumps missile attack. I am wondering if all this is perhaps interconnected.
The US has “delared” war by taking actions against Russia, China and North Korea. It’s mostly economic war right now. The main difference is that this time we have the internet and information travels, real or fake. The western forces haven’t really got the hang of the internet, hence their efforts to regulate and control it.
Massacre, false propaganda, bluffs, lies, everything can be brought to court. It only applies to having “the law on its side”! Watch the Nurnberg courts, you learn lots of lies and fake games and why torture exists for the “law”.
Israeli missiles target military base allegedly filled with Russian soldiers: unconfirmed
According to a field source in Damascus, the targeted Dumayr Airport is allegedly filled with Russian military personnel that recently held reconciliation talks with the rebel forces in the area.
Mark of a great leader is to surround yourself with great people, Putin has most certainly achieved that with Mr. Lavrov. All the respect to Mr. Lavrov who handled a hostile journalist with skill and intelligence. Today’s political world needs more people like him.
Do friends punish eachother?
Do friends economically sanction eachother?
Do friends threaten to kill eachother?
Do friends boast about killing eachother’s people (aka Deir al zor bombings) ?
Was this term used in the time of the Soviet Union, that I do not know about ?
What happened to the good old term “adversary” ??
Is that term illegal or something in post-Soviet Russian diplomatic protocol ?
If the Russians obviously do not deem it necessary to further threaten (at least verbally) or escalate the situation with NATO/Israel…….then possibly they have some kind of back-channel communications with NATO giving the Russian leadership reassurances that we normally people are not aware of.
Sorry, but I do not find the term witty or makes the Russians look sly or smart……actually I find the term and the exaggerated amount it is used a bit nauseating.
Lavrov’s use and abuse of the English language is masterly.
If you had ever been to a “posh” English school, you would have learned that there are a variety of ways of saying a simple thing like “yes sir.” It can be done in such a way that the recipient of will immediately understand that he is being insulted on the sly.
Harry, when I am forced into a discussion with a strange person, the nastier they are the more exquisitely polite I get. Its an English thing that Mr Lavrov has mastered. It doesn’t mean anything, I can curse and swear like the seaman I once was if the situation demands it.
He and his compatriots in the government are despicable, lying jackasses without a shred of decency or conscience. Lavrov, as always, was a gentleman, even when insulting his host.
they have always been like that – when they interview Varufakis, Marie Le Pen etc – loud, ugly, stupid BBC dumb idiots with fake exaggerated catatonic accents
Be very careful with Varoufakis, I used to be a big fan of him (when he still was with the now bought and paid Tsipras) until I heard I speech he gave in a British University saying “Putin is worse than Stalin”. I hope you do not believe one word of what he says, he is “controlled opposition”.
Cheers
I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Lavrov elects to be bantered by this guy’s bullshit. The interviewer is not there to talk reason. He’s there, and quite handsomely paid for it, to push innuendos that fortify western aggression. Sad, but way too many people won’t wake up.
Let’s not forget that the BBC were caught staging a fake chemical weapons attack in Syria in 2013 in the lead-up to the unsuccessful bid by Obama and Cameron to launch a missile strike. The BBC actually later doctored the audio of the staged attack to include the phrase ‘chemical weapons’ in keeping with the claims of the zionazi criminals in the US and UK at the time. The footage below reveals the methods and shameless extent of the staged event in 2013 and is a must watch. Lavrov really should have pointed to this expose – it has not received the air play it deserves.
I haven’t wanted to smash my computer or anything within reach quite so hard in some time, and there’s been a lot lately, to witness the monumental arrogance and pure evil of that interviewer and everything he represents. The closed ears, eyes and mind, the total lack of any thought and journalistic integrity. This is emblamatic of EVERYTHING that is wrong right now, and I have seen no clearer display of the utter moral bankruptcy of the Imperial hive-mind and its abundantly clear lack of interest in discussion, logic, facts or progress of any kind. Truly astounding.
Bravo to Lavrov, the world’s most patient and intelligent foreign minister. My god. I could not have restrained myself from punching that scum straight in the face.
Thank you as well, Saker, for you wonderful and courageous efforts in defense of truth and reason, by the way. To endure this madness is a great test.
They just don’t listen.
Fully engaged in propaganda effort.
It’s not journalism!
Here is an example (below) from the edge of western civilization — a tinpot town down-under waking up to its morning breakfast news. Is there any wonder the masses are unable to see the facts? These ‘signals’ keep coming out at a regular rate — a rhythm that mimics the continued regular reinforcement of a hypnotist’s systematic suggestion process.
The unverified distortions of Murdoch Media Miasma (MMM) should attract legal prosecution under consumer protection laws — the product is not safe, not what it claims to be, nor fit for purpose as a fact-based record of the day.
(Note: Rubbish only to be read to understand the fundamental problem — and one of the real reasons for the these staged events in a country like Syria. The meme is the message!)
At least get your facts right otherwise noone will believe the truth in what you are saying! This did not come from the murdoch media on this occasion – it came from the other lot – fairfax media
I didn’t like the interviewer but Lavrov stumbled a bit in some answers, which just gave the interviewer more ammo.
The most glaring example was Lavov’s response about the novochok. He could have simply said that it was extremely prone to quick degradation and that it would be suspicious to find it in a highly pure form as residue.
And on that subject, why say he completely trusted the OPCW? The American rep has already made political statements on the Douma case. And doesn’t he remember the MH-17 investigation? These groups have been shown to be less than completely trustworthy so why give sanction to their yet to be started investigation?
I really respect Lavrov, but this was not his best. At least some facts are bubbling up to support the Russian position, but Lavrov did not help it along with this interview.
Typical Stephen Sakur interview with a person he is hostile to. He keeps interrupting the person he is questioning, presents assertions and government propaganda as fact and acts incredulous when the interviewee disagrees, and is generally rude and accusatory.
Lavrov is fed up and angry, plus he has to be careful what he says, unlike Stephen, and, while his english is good it isn’t perfect.
That said, I agree the explanation of the poisoning wasn’t very articulate. I think that he was implying the Russians might share their evidence in private before resorting to a public reveal.
On the OPCW I think they have information that a competent analysis was done and they would like to force it to be made public if the Brits don’t stop trying to use it as a cudgel. I am interested to see how the accusations of British complicity play out.
This guy from the Hard Talk is an old fox, I watched his interviews in the past when the Yugoslav crisis was in full wind. We can say he is a professional, very good trained guy – in the sense that he can provoke his interlocutors, pushing them in difficult situations by insinuations, ridicule and interruptions, navigating in hallow waters, one up then down, rising the tension by verbal bully.
Mr Lavrov is a diplomat, not a PR person. Peshkov might have come across better, but he could not be trusted to stick to the safe, agreed line.
I agree that it is sickening to listen to the insulting, arrogant way the BBC interviews foreigners with whom it disagrees. Nowadays I can only expose myself to it in homeopathic doses.
“Welcome to HardTalk” indeed. More like “HardHonk”. I don’t know why anyone would waste their time engaging in these “interviews”. They’re not interviews in the sense that you get to hear what the interviewee has to say; if they say something the interviewer doesn’t like, then the interviewer honks all over the reply. In my opinion, Lavrov should do something more productive with his time than listening to all this honking; like getting some sleep instead.
Everyone who goes on that show knows what to expect. Lavrov has been a guest before, as have many other high profile folks. I believe it has a pretty wide audience, so its a good forum, despite the obnoxious host, to reach a big and diverse audience across the English speaking world.
the english interlocutor repeatedly references punishment for assad/syria for alleged re-use of chemical weapons. why has there never been any insinuation by the International community that the united states be punished for what it did in iraq (2003-present); in iraq, and iran (1980-1988?)
A rather depressing interview in which there is a “failure to communicate”. The reporter spends most of the interview ignoring Lavrov’s demand for facts, but then, toward the end, when Lavrov questions Britain’s motives, he “changes the rules” and suddenly gets religion on evidence, telling Lavrov he can’t make such an accusation without facts. Lavrov was only saying, “here is a possibility that should be considered.” At the end the interviewer says something along the lines of “we have differences of opinion” as if that is the end of the matter. In that situation, if one is serious, one uses facts to determine which opinions, if any, are correct.
It seems with people like this reporter you aren’t really debating about what happened in Syria but rather whether facts (or the law?) are important.
This combative UK style of interview seems to be the new norm. (*)
Very far from effective in my view.
There is no respect for the audience/viewer seeking facts and news — rather just an assumed entertainment of gladiators for the new TV-land Colosseum.
(*) See the Jordan Peterson vs Cathy Newman interview (now 9+million hits) for a classic verion:
“Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism”
Channel 4 News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54
All very symptomatic of an ageing impotent demographic in the advanced stages of a decaying post-empire decline. Rampant with pedophilia at the top and dementia at the bottom this sick little Britain has been captured by a punitive culture at the top under internal thread run by a 90+ year old queen and her geriatric Greek husband sticking it out until the grandchildren of choice can replace their wacko (although somewhat right centered) adulterous son and his mistress wife #2 in line for the old threadbare throne of the German House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
In true boarding school style they need a whipping boy to release their frustrated venom and Dr Assad is the convenient ‘man of the moment’ and Syria is the place to wreck. I’m just waiting for Argentina to take back their islands again after a couple of UK boats are sent down to meet old Davy Jones’ Locker at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. I’m not holding my breath but it’s just one world-war away, imo.
Bernard Levin and Jeremy Paxman were among the first British journalists to grill interviewees without respect for person or office.
Levin, however, was unfailingly courteous and hardly ever interrupted. Paxman, too, has been reasonably well-mannered although recently he has been getting ruder and more peremptory – perhaps because he finds it’s popular.
Years ago I happened to tune in to hear Paxman interviewing Bill Gates – a huge, juicy target for any investigative journalist – and I have never heard such appalling sycophancy. “Tell me, Mr Gates, how did you get to be so incredibly clever? How does it feel to be the world’s greatest programmer? [sic]”
Brits are generally very good at (removed language,MOD)
when I lived there years ago (working for investment banks) I noticed how they use their laughs as a currency – it’s much more important who is telling the joke than whether the joke is funny or not. They always tend to laugh loud to their bosses’ jokes and if they perceive (usually wrongly) that the person telling a joke (no matter how funny) is somehow below them – they will not laugh.
Obsessed with status – like all very insecure sheeple .
Bill Gates is not that cleaver – he lived next door to a famous Sillicone Valley exec who used to help him (kind of like if you are a kid wanting to work in fashion and your next door neighbor is Georgio Armani). Described in Gladwell’s book on talent.
His product is shit (I am using a Windows 10 machine as we speak – the worst OS I have ever seen). He finances many dangerous experiments playing god with climate ( spreading chemicals in the sky – a pretty dangerous unpredictable strategy as described in Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything…as well as how on other projects like turning shit into water etc- and some other strange projects.
But he must be very famous with money-obsessed psychopaths who would gladly sell their kids to the highest bidder
There are no real journalists or reporters in most of the West. Real reporters or journalists report FACTS, these scumbags just do propaganda, that is all.
Edward …. journalists …. the corporate ones …. dont work with facts … just subjective shallow interrpretations…. and some are political lines which no body should ever take seriously.
When a politician asserts something the truth is the opposite thus the media are compelled to conform ….
Did anyone write their undergrad essays on journalist .. opinions ….. or post grad thesis on journo s opinions….
No……
One has to be very discerning today around western media in particular….
Very impressed with Lavrov especially his understanding of English. I don’t know the journalist but he comes across as what the British might call a prat.
Since when does one accuse another of a crime without substantial proof and then put the burden of proof on the accused. This is a little weird. Lavrov was pretty clear about this.
Lavrov did an interview with him during the clearing of Aleppo. Same bs. Lavrov knew what he was in for, but I think the Russians are taken aback by the transparency of the lies and how they are being used and have lost patience… almost.
Very interesting that Lavrov conducts this interview in English, using highly abstract wording. Can you imagine a Western politician conducting a similar interview in Russian?
What a laugh. “You are very rude”. Yea that BBC person needs a course in civility. Constantly cutting Lavrov off when he answers with facts. I lost track of how many time that BBC wanker said “if they use chemical weapons AGAIN” even though there is no proof that the Assad forces have used them on any of the 4 occasions that they’ve been accused of.
Every time they start winning they decide to use chemical weapons? Please BBC at least pretend to be journalists and ask the most basic of questions taught in first year studies:
1) Who benefits?
2) Motive?
3) Means?
4) Opportunity?
The interviewer stepped into it bringing up the 1938 Olympics. Lavrov brought attention to the fact that the British players stood erect with nazi salutes. In response to BoJo, Maria Zakharova informed that the Brit dignitaries attended the event not the Russians. I didn’t know they snapped to attention! Brilliant ending.
All I can say is this British reporter is an embarrassment to his country, he is doing nothing but accusing the Russian minister , he can’t listen to what he’s told ,and he has a limited understanding on the subjects he’s trying to talk about. It looks to me like he want’s a cage match with Lavrov. LOLOLOL No wonder the reporter didn’t want to show his face to the camera LOLOLOLOL
In war there is only propaganda and justice oppressed, so even in peace. Law is important here but not as many think fair ships are? Legal is “Not who is right but who gets right.” Lavrov is right but was in defense, the reporter won and got right for the propaganda dumbled into people’s consciousness, “poison gas attack, poison gas attack ……. blabla, etc.” Unfortunately Russian politicians think they are right against the Western propaganda, it is very dangerous.
Sergei Lavrov is an incredible diplomat. I’d have been tempted to smack that rude, pompous, belligerent ignorant little British state broadcaster jerk. Demanding Lavrov prove a negative -which nobody can do.
Loaded questions by the barrel full and, like a child, anytime the conversation didn’t go his way he’d interrupt Lavrov with a barrage of diversions.
I wonder if that nasty little brat is related to Dwayne Gish of ‘Gish Gallop’ fame?
Stephen Sackur needs to be challenged as to why US and Israel have not destroyed their chemical weapons. He is not credible claiming countries which do abide with OPCW can be punished by those which do not. He is stating as a journalist that he has double standards. He needs to be interviewing John Bolton, not Sergei Lavrov.
Forcing in pre-scripted soundbites was a loss for Sackur. It did not come naturally as Lavrov was not tricked into controversy. Impossible task, perhaps.
So there is no communication on political level anymore – no UK, no EU, no NATO. UK is back on world politics with very sinister agenda. Brits are going positively victorian teaching the world how to behave using proof by punishment. How rude, indeed.
Bit off topic, but it is crucial to see how brexiting Britain and macronist France are cooperating and trying to steer the EU. In this regard the “The Franco-British « Entente cordiale », by Thierry Meyssan is worth reading:
“Unnoticed in the Western world, the renewal of the Lancaster House Treaty by London and Paris creates a super « Entente cordiale » which is far more immersive than the Treaty of 1904. It participates in the re-institution of a bipolar world, and will inevitably provoke the exit of France from the European Union and the return of tension between Paris and Berlin.
… abandon of the Franco-German couple for a Franco-British Entente announces the return of much-feared tensions between Paris and Berlin.”
The result will provide the trend of how Mays governemnt will fare in a national election …. Based on the very grey claims re poisoning and UK participation in a missile strike on Syria on very dodgy evidence without a parliamentary debate …
How will the british electorate respond in that May vote….
I believe Mays government is history and she soon or post the by election will be compelled to resign by cabinett in a typical behind the scenes coup.
Anyone spotted Boris recently ? Or is he hiding in the closet
Sorry, but this is ridiculous. Why is Russia belittling itself by agreeing to an interrogation by an arrogant, insiginificant EU country? When are they going to realize that these people are not interesting in ‘dialogue’?
Given the emphasis on airbases in tripartite crime gang’s latest missile adventure and Turkey’s oh so pleased with the development instant response following the attack it does seem the evilitudinous throng intend to prevent heavy airborne translocation into theater.
The journalist at the BBC, who originally started the ‘Hard Talk’ series, gave his collocutor time to answer unpleasant questions. Mr. Lavrov just about managed to present his views despite Steven Zacher’s behaviour. I watched an interview he had with Vladislav Jovanovic, the Yugoslav minister of foreign affairs, in 1995. Zacher conducted a ‘barrage-type’ monologue of absolutely shocking insults and accusations. I don’t think anyone was the wiser about what was going on in Yugoslavia, its standpoint, or even where the country was on the map. I remember the expression on Mr. Jovanovic’s face. It was white with shock. It was quite sickening to watch.
This circular idiocy reasoning is disheartening. The Western world is right by decree of being Gods to be worshipped and nothing else. The rest of the world better understand and fall in line or else. There is no discussion possible with these self-proclaimed Gods.
That’s my summation of this interview. The only thing that can settle this is a war and only a war. I believe Russia understands this, Iran probably too. China will have to make a choice still on which side of the fence they want to be. So will be many smaller countries.
I thought he was excellent. The Cary Grant of diplomacy knows his stuff well. He was calm and factual to an aggressive and provocative interviewer.
BBC: This crisis isn’t over is it?
Lavrov: That depends on those who invented the crisis…
Lavrov: We waited for these smart, new, nice missiles and we calculated that 2/3 of them didn’t reach their destination..They were intercepted.
BBC: There’s absolutely no evidence for that, is there?
Lavrov: The military and ministry of defence of the Russian Federation presented it’s assessment and it is available for professional discussion. (in other words NOT with you, Stephen Sackur)
Btw, did any one notice his long sigh when BBC mentioned Nikki Haley, at 3.16 min? LOL!
Most people in the world including many in the West see through the lies of the F.UK.US. Stay cool. Stand your ground. Don’t be provoked into playing their unlawful games.
PS. The interviewer was not a true journalist but a professional fake-newsman.
The entire north american power structure and its lap dog puppet regimes in europe and all of their mass media are suffering from an induced collective case of Borderline Personality Disorder. Without exception nothing they say can be taken at face value, as the next time you speak to them, a word for word quotation of what they told you previously will be defended to the death as having precisely the opposite meaning of what was clearly intended in the first place. This flip-flopping can go on and on in the blink of an eye without missing a beat as if you are trying to communicate with a robotic apparatus whose linguistic programming has been left incomplete. After nearly 30 years of this surely the Russians (and the Chinese), who have excellent bullshit detectors, have long since recognized what ( yes what, not “who”) they are dealing with and are simply not murdering somebody already in the process of committing suicide. Unfortunately, this suicide is an extended process and meanwhile we have clearly unbalanced madmen and madwomen waving around and firing loaded cruise missiles, all the while accusing the object of their madness of all the ills they themselves are fomenting.
Mr. Putin I think, is just trying to keep the muzzle deflected until a hoped for implosion comes, or barring that he has enough time to get all of their newest systems fully deployed to trained units in the field. I see Mr. Lavrov’s Herculean efforts in exposing himself to these “dumb terminals” of the western Ministries of Truth as a psyop, and he richly deserves an Oscar, but the likelihood of having it all go south anyway is all but certain. I am convinced that trying to “run out the clock” on the empire is pointless anyhow. If you ask me, it ran out November 22, 1963 and since then we’ve just been whistling past the graveyard. There is a rabid dog on the loose, in the former Palestine I’m afrad, that must be put down as it is already too late for prophylactic treatment to be effective and it has already spread its infection to the biggest dog on our rock. It is unfortunate that nobody was in a position to both recognize the signs and take steps to head things off. C’est la vie. Prolonging things now just increases the risks to everybody.
Oh dear, what a pathetic and shameful performance from the BBC interviewer. That was almost schoolboy level. Where do they breed these people? In a vat deep below Portland Place?
I do admire Mr Lavrov’s patience and forbearance in the face of such wilful (and no doubt well-paid, who would make such a fool of himself for normal wages?) stupidity. Its not an easy task. He made his points though.
Fresh missile attack, probably Israel, on airbase just occurred per RT and Sputniknews.
First reports, no damage, Syrian air defenses worked.
Here:
https://sputniknews.com/world/201804171063630172-syrian-air-defenses-target-missiles/
https://www.rt.com/news/424333-syria-missiles-defense-homs/
Mod
Robert Fisk reporting from Douma (report filed 2 hours ago in the Independent) has basically blown apart May’s rationale for going all guns blazing. There was NO gas attack.
Fisk’s report: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-gas-douma-robert-fisk-ghouta-damascus-a8307726.html
Kaiama
Of course there was no gas attack in Douma, just like there was no gas attack in England. Both were false flags, poorly planned and executed, with the White Helmets in Syria being given the task of movie directors, creating a third rate video. What is interesting is that during the past few days there were reports on the Internet of 200 US special forces being killed in Syria and 200 British SAS special forces being captured by the Russian military police. And of course we had Trumps missile attack. I am wondering if all this is perhaps interconnected.
The US has “delared” war by taking actions against Russia, China and North Korea. It’s mostly economic war right now. The main difference is that this time we have the internet and information travels, real or fake. The western forces haven’t really got the hang of the internet, hence their efforts to regulate and control it.
Russians should strike Israeli aircraft if they shoot missiles at Syria.
This coordination between Russia and Israel on Syria is just cowardly.
Russia should either (1) commit to the cause or be (2) prepared to be pre emptively nuked / nuclear showdown.
If non of these two things occur, then I guess there are back door games being played that not even the Saker knows about.
My bet for now is on a nuclear war….
This reporter is a joke!
I agree …. why I wont listen to the so called western media ….. So so soso pathetic….. pushing their pathetic dumb agenda s …….
evidence … social media …. MSM …….
Nothing of this shape would stand up to a judicial enquiry….
How low have these useful idiots fallen ….. corporate journalist s social media …. pathetic – I think brigade
Massacre, false propaganda, bluffs, lies, everything can be brought to court. It only applies to having “the law on its side”! Watch the Nurnberg courts, you learn lots of lies and fake games and why torture exists for the “law”.
Israeli missiles target military base allegedly filled with Russian soldiers: unconfirmed
According to a field source in Damascus, the targeted Dumayr Airport is allegedly filled with Russian military personnel that recently held reconciliation talks with the rebel forces in the area.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/israeli-missiles-target-military-base-allegedly-filled-with-russian-soldiers-unconfirmed/
more details soon
Lavrov : for a Brit you have very bad manners lol
Lavrov : ” you have hard talk , we have hard facts ” superb !
Mark of a great leader is to surround yourself with great people, Putin has most certainly achieved that with Mr. Lavrov. All the respect to Mr. Lavrov who handled a hostile journalist with skill and intelligence. Today’s political world needs more people like him.
What is with this term “Western Friends” ??
Do friends punish eachother?
Do friends economically sanction eachother?
Do friends threaten to kill eachother?
Do friends boast about killing eachother’s people (aka Deir al zor bombings) ?
Was this term used in the time of the Soviet Union, that I do not know about ?
What happened to the good old term “adversary” ??
Is that term illegal or something in post-Soviet Russian diplomatic protocol ?
If the Russians obviously do not deem it necessary to further threaten (at least verbally) or escalate the situation with NATO/Israel…….then possibly they have some kind of back-channel communications with NATO giving the Russian leadership reassurances that we normally people are not aware of.
Harry, words in diplomacy don’t have the same emotional characteristics as in normal speech.
“Partner”, “Friend”, “Colleague”, are special terms of protocol and/or caustic reverse meaning.
“His Excellency”, for instance usually means “His Mediocrity”, or “His Deviance”, etc.
Loosen up. Enjoy the mastery of the best diplomat in our lifetime.
Lavrov is a consummate wit.
Sorry, but I do not find the term witty or makes the Russians look sly or smart……actually I find the term and the exaggerated amount it is used a bit nauseating.
Harry_Red,
Lavrov’s use and abuse of the English language is masterly.
If you had ever been to a “posh” English school, you would have learned that there are a variety of ways of saying a simple thing like “yes sir.” It can be done in such a way that the recipient of will immediately understand that he is being insulted on the sly.
This is so different from American political discourse.
Like, there is an actual adult in the room talking.
yes but one adult …
the other is a sad version of what is left of western media ….. a corporate drone trying to slur the best FM I have experienced
Harry, when I am forced into a discussion with a strange person, the nastier they are the more exquisitely polite I get. Its an English thing that Mr Lavrov has mastered. It doesn’t mean anything, I can curse and swear like the seaman I once was if the situation demands it.
The interviewer got nowhere, despite his antics.
my God… it’s unbelievable… how rude the journalist is… and Lavrov, very tired, responding every question (when the journalist allow)…
my God… these people has turn as Zombies…
He and his compatriots in the government are despicable, lying jackasses without a shred of decency or conscience. Lavrov, as always, was a gentleman, even when insulting his host.
they have always been like that – when they interview Varufakis, Marie Le Pen etc – loud, ugly, stupid BBC dumb idiots with fake exaggerated catatonic accents
Be very careful with Varoufakis, I used to be a big fan of him (when he still was with the now bought and paid Tsipras) until I heard I speech he gave in a British University saying “Putin is worse than Stalin”. I hope you do not believe one word of what he says, he is “controlled opposition”.
Cheers
I agree with you – I always had an impression he had no clue about what he was talking about. Like Tsipras
I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Lavrov elects to be bantered by this guy’s bullshit. The interviewer is not there to talk reason. He’s there, and quite handsomely paid for it, to push innuendos that fortify western aggression. Sad, but way too many people won’t wake up.
Most likely it is because Lavrov sees this interview as a way of reaching western audiences.
This is damning:
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804171063629688-us-reporter-douma-wa/
Let’s not forget that the BBC were caught staging a fake chemical weapons attack in Syria in 2013 in the lead-up to the unsuccessful bid by Obama and Cameron to launch a missile strike. The BBC actually later doctored the audio of the staged attack to include the phrase ‘chemical weapons’ in keeping with the claims of the zionazi criminals in the US and UK at the time. The footage below reveals the methods and shameless extent of the staged event in 2013 and is a must watch. Lavrov really should have pointed to this expose – it has not received the air play it deserves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8OsMV2ZKII
I haven’t wanted to smash my computer or anything within reach quite so hard in some time, and there’s been a lot lately, to witness the monumental arrogance and pure evil of that interviewer and everything he represents. The closed ears, eyes and mind, the total lack of any thought and journalistic integrity. This is emblamatic of EVERYTHING that is wrong right now, and I have seen no clearer display of the utter moral bankruptcy of the Imperial hive-mind and its abundantly clear lack of interest in discussion, logic, facts or progress of any kind. Truly astounding.
Bravo to Lavrov, the world’s most patient and intelligent foreign minister. My god. I could not have restrained myself from punching that scum straight in the face.
Thank you as well, Saker, for you wonderful and courageous efforts in defense of truth and reason, by the way. To endure this madness is a great test.
Syrian air defense systems have been activated in response to a missile attack apparently targeting Shayrat Airbase in Homs province, state media SANA reports
https://www.rt.com/news/424333-syria-missiles-defense-homs/
From Press TV: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/04/16/558747/syria-homs-airbase-missile
More to come
They just don’t listen.
Fully engaged in propaganda effort.
It’s not journalism!
Here is an example (below) from the edge of western civilization — a tinpot town down-under waking up to its morning breakfast news. Is there any wonder the masses are unable to see the facts? These ‘signals’ keep coming out at a regular rate — a rhythm that mimics the continued regular reinforcement of a hypnotist’s systematic suggestion process.
The unverified distortions of Murdoch Media Miasma (MMM) should attract legal prosecution under consumer protection laws — the product is not safe, not what it claims to be, nor fit for purpose as a fact-based record of the day.
(Note: Rubbish only to be read to understand the fundamental problem — and one of the real reasons for the these staged events in a country like Syria. The meme is the message!)
http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/russia-s-been-at-war-with-the-us-for-years-they-just-didn-t-know-it-20180416-p4z9xe.html
At least get your facts right otherwise noone will believe the truth in what you are saying! This did not come from the murdoch media on this occasion – it came from the other lot – fairfax media
I didn’t like the interviewer but Lavrov stumbled a bit in some answers, which just gave the interviewer more ammo.
The most glaring example was Lavov’s response about the novochok. He could have simply said that it was extremely prone to quick degradation and that it would be suspicious to find it in a highly pure form as residue.
And on that subject, why say he completely trusted the OPCW? The American rep has already made political statements on the Douma case. And doesn’t he remember the MH-17 investigation? These groups have been shown to be less than completely trustworthy so why give sanction to their yet to be started investigation?
I really respect Lavrov, but this was not his best. At least some facts are bubbling up to support the Russian position, but Lavrov did not help it along with this interview.
Typical Stephen Sakur interview with a person he is hostile to. He keeps interrupting the person he is questioning, presents assertions and government propaganda as fact and acts incredulous when the interviewee disagrees, and is generally rude and accusatory.
Lavrov is fed up and angry, plus he has to be careful what he says, unlike Stephen, and, while his english is good it isn’t perfect.
That said, I agree the explanation of the poisoning wasn’t very articulate. I think that he was implying the Russians might share their evidence in private before resorting to a public reveal.
On the OPCW I think they have information that a competent analysis was done and they would like to force it to be made public if the Brits don’t stop trying to use it as a cudgel. I am interested to see how the accusations of British complicity play out.
….Steven Sackur would do very well in the company of Boris J…and T. May in Parliament….SS prefers making statements than asking proper questions…
I think the overriding priority is to avoid being asked questions to which there are no answers.
This guy from the Hard Talk is an old fox, I watched his interviews in the past when the Yugoslav crisis was in full wind. We can say he is a professional, very good trained guy – in the sense that he can provoke his interlocutors, pushing them in difficult situations by insinuations, ridicule and interruptions, navigating in hallow waters, one up then down, rising the tension by verbal bully.
Mr Lavrov is a diplomat, not a PR person. Peshkov might have come across better, but he could not be trusted to stick to the safe, agreed line.
I agree that it is sickening to listen to the insulting, arrogant way the BBC interviews foreigners with whom it disagrees. Nowadays I can only expose myself to it in homeopathic doses.
Perhaps you would like to have seen the interviewer interview Lavrov in Russian?
“Welcome to HardTalk” indeed. More like “HardHonk”. I don’t know why anyone would waste their time engaging in these “interviews”. They’re not interviews in the sense that you get to hear what the interviewee has to say; if they say something the interviewer doesn’t like, then the interviewer honks all over the reply. In my opinion, Lavrov should do something more productive with his time than listening to all this honking; like getting some sleep instead.
Everyone who goes on that show knows what to expect. Lavrov has been a guest before, as have many other high profile folks. I believe it has a pretty wide audience, so its a good forum, despite the obnoxious host, to reach a big and diverse audience across the English speaking world.
the english interlocutor repeatedly references punishment for assad/syria for alleged re-use of chemical weapons. why has there never been any insinuation by the International community that the united states be punished for what it did in iraq (2003-present); in iraq, and iran (1980-1988?)
A rather depressing interview in which there is a “failure to communicate”. The reporter spends most of the interview ignoring Lavrov’s demand for facts, but then, toward the end, when Lavrov questions Britain’s motives, he “changes the rules” and suddenly gets religion on evidence, telling Lavrov he can’t make such an accusation without facts. Lavrov was only saying, “here is a possibility that should be considered.” At the end the interviewer says something along the lines of “we have differences of opinion” as if that is the end of the matter. In that situation, if one is serious, one uses facts to determine which opinions, if any, are correct.
It seems with people like this reporter you aren’t really debating about what happened in Syria but rather whether facts (or the law?) are important.
This combative UK style of interview seems to be the new norm. (*)
Very far from effective in my view.
There is no respect for the audience/viewer seeking facts and news — rather just an assumed entertainment of gladiators for the new TV-land Colosseum.
(*) See the Jordan Peterson vs Cathy Newman interview (now 9+million hits) for a classic verion:
“Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism”
Channel 4 News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54
All very symptomatic of an ageing impotent demographic in the advanced stages of a decaying post-empire decline. Rampant with pedophilia at the top and dementia at the bottom this sick little Britain has been captured by a punitive culture at the top under internal thread run by a 90+ year old queen and her geriatric Greek husband sticking it out until the grandchildren of choice can replace their wacko (although somewhat right centered) adulterous son and his mistress wife #2 in line for the old threadbare throne of the German House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
In true boarding school style they need a whipping boy to release their frustrated venom and Dr Assad is the convenient ‘man of the moment’ and Syria is the place to wreck. I’m just waiting for Argentina to take back their islands again after a couple of UK boats are sent down to meet old Davy Jones’ Locker at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. I’m not holding my breath but it’s just one world-war away, imo.
Bernard Levin and Jeremy Paxman were among the first British journalists to grill interviewees without respect for person or office.
Levin, however, was unfailingly courteous and hardly ever interrupted. Paxman, too, has been reasonably well-mannered although recently he has been getting ruder and more peremptory – perhaps because he finds it’s popular.
Years ago I happened to tune in to hear Paxman interviewing Bill Gates – a huge, juicy target for any investigative journalist – and I have never heard such appalling sycophancy. “Tell me, Mr Gates, how did you get to be so incredibly clever? How does it feel to be the world’s greatest programmer? [sic]”
They know which side their bread is buttered.
Brits are generally very good at (removed language,MOD)
when I lived there years ago (working for investment banks) I noticed how they use their laughs as a currency – it’s much more important who is telling the joke than whether the joke is funny or not. They always tend to laugh loud to their bosses’ jokes and if they perceive (usually wrongly) that the person telling a joke (no matter how funny) is somehow below them – they will not laugh.
Obsessed with status – like all very insecure sheeple .
Bill Gates is not that cleaver – he lived next door to a famous Sillicone Valley exec who used to help him (kind of like if you are a kid wanting to work in fashion and your next door neighbor is Georgio Armani). Described in Gladwell’s book on talent.
His product is shit (I am using a Windows 10 machine as we speak – the worst OS I have ever seen). He finances many dangerous experiments playing god with climate ( spreading chemicals in the sky – a pretty dangerous unpredictable strategy as described in Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything…as well as how on other projects like turning shit into water etc- and some other strange projects.
But he must be very famous with money-obsessed psychopaths who would gladly sell their kids to the highest bidder
There are no real journalists or reporters in most of the West. Real reporters or journalists report FACTS, these scumbags just do propaganda, that is all.
Edward …. journalists …. the corporate ones …. dont work with facts … just subjective shallow interrpretations…. and some are political lines which no body should ever take seriously.
When a politician asserts something the truth is the opposite thus the media are compelled to conform ….
Did anyone write their undergrad essays on journalist .. opinions ….. or post grad thesis on journo s opinions….
No……
One has to be very discerning today around western media in particular….
Very impressed with Lavrov especially his understanding of English. I don’t know the journalist but he comes across as what the British might call a prat.
Since when does one accuse another of a crime without substantial proof and then put the burden of proof on the accused. This is a little weird. Lavrov was pretty clear about this.
The regular host for HardTalk Stephen Sakur:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sackur
Lavrov did an interview with him during the clearing of Aleppo. Same bs. Lavrov knew what he was in for, but I think the Russians are taken aback by the transparency of the lies and how they are being used and have lost patience… almost.
Very interesting that Lavrov conducts this interview in English, using highly abstract wording. Can you imagine a Western politician conducting a similar interview in Russian?
No. I really wish someone in the US state department would try though. That would be a good laugh.
Thank you for posting this interview.
What a laugh. “You are very rude”. Yea that BBC person needs a course in civility. Constantly cutting Lavrov off when he answers with facts. I lost track of how many time that BBC wanker said “if they use chemical weapons AGAIN” even though there is no proof that the Assad forces have used them on any of the 4 occasions that they’ve been accused of.
Every time they start winning they decide to use chemical weapons? Please BBC at least pretend to be journalists and ask the most basic of questions taught in first year studies:
1) Who benefits?
2) Motive?
3) Means?
4) Opportunity?
The interviewer stepped into it bringing up the 1938 Olympics. Lavrov brought attention to the fact that the British players stood erect with nazi salutes. In response to BoJo, Maria Zakharova informed that the Brit dignitaries attended the event not the Russians. I didn’t know they snapped to attention! Brilliant ending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlbLHviSTPc
The BBC journalist should be ashamed of himself. My sympathies to Ambassador Lavrov. It’s like trying to reason with a two-year-old.
All I can say is this British reporter is an embarrassment to his country, he is doing nothing but accusing the Russian minister , he can’t listen to what he’s told ,and he has a limited understanding on the subjects he’s trying to talk about. It looks to me like he want’s a cage match with Lavrov. LOLOLOL No wonder the reporter didn’t want to show his face to the camera LOLOLOLOL
Is this an interview or a cage match? LOLOLOLOL The reporter looks like he just wants to provoke Lavrov into throwing the first punch! LOLOLOL
In war there is only propaganda and justice oppressed, so even in peace. Law is important here but not as many think fair ships are? Legal is “Not who is right but who gets right.” Lavrov is right but was in defense, the reporter won and got right for the propaganda dumbled into people’s consciousness, “poison gas attack, poison gas attack ……. blabla, etc.” Unfortunately Russian politicians think they are right against the Western propaganda, it is very dangerous.
Sergei Lavrov is an incredible diplomat. I’d have been tempted to smack that rude, pompous, belligerent ignorant little British state broadcaster jerk. Demanding Lavrov prove a negative -which nobody can do.
Loaded questions by the barrel full and, like a child, anytime the conversation didn’t go his way he’d interrupt Lavrov with a barrage of diversions.
I wonder if that nasty little brat is related to Dwayne Gish of ‘Gish Gallop’ fame?
Stephen Sackur needs to be challenged as to why US and Israel have not destroyed their chemical weapons. He is not credible claiming countries which do abide with OPCW can be punished by those which do not. He is stating as a journalist that he has double standards. He needs to be interviewing John Bolton, not Sergei Lavrov.
Listen to his interview with Sakashvili sometime, quite amusing:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0926ml5
Forcing in pre-scripted soundbites was a loss for Sackur. It did not come naturally as Lavrov was not tricked into controversy. Impossible task, perhaps.
So there is no communication on political level anymore – no UK, no EU, no NATO. UK is back on world politics with very sinister agenda. Brits are going positively victorian teaching the world how to behave using proof by punishment. How rude, indeed.
Bit off topic, but it is crucial to see how brexiting Britain and macronist France are cooperating and trying to steer the EU. In this regard the “The Franco-British « Entente cordiale », by Thierry Meyssan is worth reading:
“Unnoticed in the Western world, the renewal of the Lancaster House Treaty by London and Paris creates a super « Entente cordiale » which is far more immersive than the Treaty of 1904. It participates in the re-institution of a bipolar world, and will inevitably provoke the exit of France from the European Union and the return of tension between Paris and Berlin.
… abandon of the Franco-German couple for a Franco-British Entente announces the return of much-feared tensions between Paris and Berlin.”
https://www.voltairenet.org/article199528.html
The brits are facing a by election in May 2018…..
The result will provide the trend of how Mays governemnt will fare in a national election …. Based on the very grey claims re poisoning and UK participation in a missile strike on Syria on very dodgy evidence without a parliamentary debate …
How will the british electorate respond in that May vote….
I believe Mays government is history and she soon or post the by election will be compelled to resign by cabinett in a typical behind the scenes coup.
Anyone spotted Boris recently ? Or is he hiding in the closet
Sorry, but this is ridiculous. Why is Russia belittling itself by agreeing to an interrogation by an arrogant, insiginificant EU country? When are they going to realize that these people are not interesting in ‘dialogue’?
Given the emphasis on airbases in tripartite crime gang’s latest missile adventure and Turkey’s oh so pleased with the development instant response following the attack it does seem the evilitudinous throng intend to prevent heavy airborne translocation into theater.
Lavrov: “I am not going to discuss Boris Johnson”.
Sardonic smirk.
Perfect.
The journalist at the BBC, who originally started the ‘Hard Talk’ series, gave his collocutor time to answer unpleasant questions. Mr. Lavrov just about managed to present his views despite Steven Zacher’s behaviour. I watched an interview he had with Vladislav Jovanovic, the Yugoslav minister of foreign affairs, in 1995. Zacher conducted a ‘barrage-type’ monologue of absolutely shocking insults and accusations. I don’t think anyone was the wiser about what was going on in Yugoslavia, its standpoint, or even where the country was on the map. I remember the expression on Mr. Jovanovic’s face. It was white with shock. It was quite sickening to watch.
BBC is belligerent broadcasting crap.
This circular idiocy reasoning is disheartening. The Western world is right by decree of being Gods to be worshipped and nothing else. The rest of the world better understand and fall in line or else. There is no discussion possible with these self-proclaimed Gods.
That’s my summation of this interview. The only thing that can settle this is a war and only a war. I believe Russia understands this, Iran probably too. China will have to make a choice still on which side of the fence they want to be. So will be many smaller countries.
I thought he was excellent. The Cary Grant of diplomacy knows his stuff well. He was calm and factual to an aggressive and provocative interviewer.
BBC: This crisis isn’t over is it?
Lavrov: That depends on those who invented the crisis…
Lavrov: We waited for these smart, new, nice missiles and we calculated that 2/3 of them didn’t reach their destination..They were intercepted.
BBC: There’s absolutely no evidence for that, is there?
Lavrov: The military and ministry of defence of the Russian Federation presented it’s assessment and it is available for professional discussion. (in other words NOT with you, Stephen Sackur)
Btw, did any one notice his long sigh when BBC mentioned Nikki Haley, at 3.16 min? LOL!
Yes. He was very good. Obviously a man of intelligence and integrity, disturbed and pained by lack of both in the US, UK and EU.
Well done, Mr Lavrov!
Most people in the world including many in the West see through the lies of the F.UK.US. Stay cool. Stand your ground. Don’t be provoked into playing their unlawful games.
PS. The interviewer was not a true journalist but a professional fake-newsman.
This was an interrogation not an interview. Mr. Lavrov did an excellent job. He was ambassador in Sri Lanka for years so don’t doubt his English.
It’s hard to imagine why Foreign Minister Lavrov would put up with the yapping dogs of “Hard Talk”.
The entire north american power structure and its lap dog puppet regimes in europe and all of their mass media are suffering from an induced collective case of Borderline Personality Disorder. Without exception nothing they say can be taken at face value, as the next time you speak to them, a word for word quotation of what they told you previously will be defended to the death as having precisely the opposite meaning of what was clearly intended in the first place. This flip-flopping can go on and on in the blink of an eye without missing a beat as if you are trying to communicate with a robotic apparatus whose linguistic programming has been left incomplete. After nearly 30 years of this surely the Russians (and the Chinese), who have excellent bullshit detectors, have long since recognized what ( yes what, not “who”) they are dealing with and are simply not murdering somebody already in the process of committing suicide. Unfortunately, this suicide is an extended process and meanwhile we have clearly unbalanced madmen and madwomen waving around and firing loaded cruise missiles, all the while accusing the object of their madness of all the ills they themselves are fomenting.
Mr. Putin I think, is just trying to keep the muzzle deflected until a hoped for implosion comes, or barring that he has enough time to get all of their newest systems fully deployed to trained units in the field. I see Mr. Lavrov’s Herculean efforts in exposing himself to these “dumb terminals” of the western Ministries of Truth as a psyop, and he richly deserves an Oscar, but the likelihood of having it all go south anyway is all but certain. I am convinced that trying to “run out the clock” on the empire is pointless anyhow. If you ask me, it ran out November 22, 1963 and since then we’ve just been whistling past the graveyard. There is a rabid dog on the loose, in the former Palestine I’m afrad, that must be put down as it is already too late for prophylactic treatment to be effective and it has already spread its infection to the biggest dog on our rock. It is unfortunate that nobody was in a position to both recognize the signs and take steps to head things off. C’est la vie. Prolonging things now just increases the risks to everybody.
Oh dear, what a pathetic and shameful performance from the BBC interviewer. That was almost schoolboy level. Where do they breed these people? In a vat deep below Portland Place?
I do admire Mr Lavrov’s patience and forbearance in the face of such wilful (and no doubt well-paid, who would make such a fool of himself for normal wages?) stupidity. Its not an easy task. He made his points though.