Credit Where It’s Due: Stephanopoulos Torches Lavrov on Russian Lies About Zelenskyy

During Thursday’s Good Morning America, ABC aired co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos grilling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Russia’s merciless war against the innocent people of Ukraine and the Vladimir Putin regime’s lies about the invasion and their ugly lies about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy being a neo-Nazi.

Stephanopoulos spoke to Lavrov at a press conference that featured other English-speaking journalists. Stephanopoulos only had two questions and made sure they count.

Russian bombs are causing civilian deaths in Ukraine. The world is hearing the lies Russia’s telling about those attacks. The whole world comes together to confront those lies and the attacks they are causing. What can you do to defend them?

Lavrov denied the atrocities Russia’s carried out, saying he couldn’t “comment” The following are the “great deal of” “conjectures,”whining about how the west was “trying to close down all of the outlets…broadcast by Russia from Russia, on how the special military operation progresses and advances and how the Ukrainian army and the neo-Nazi battalions behave towards the peaceful civilians.”

He further lied by saying Ukrainians “rob and rip off the Donbass settlements” with Ukranian soldiers stealing from their own people, “behav[ing] like pillagers and marauders.”

Stephanopoulos was also urged to go full boomer by Lavrov. “[p]lease visit our website…to get a detailed transcription of what the Kyiv neo-Nazi regime is now doing.”

Take a look at Stephanopolous describing Putin as “a killer” in March 2021 to President Biden, Lavrov concluded telling him: “[T]he real killers are siding with the Kyiv regime.”

Stephanopoulos didn’t mince words in his other question, taking aim at one of the ugliest lies of the war: “Do you believe that President Zelenskyy, the first Jewish president of Ukraine, whose families were [sic] killed in the Holocaust, is a Nazi?”

Lavrov kept to the Kremlin line that he indeed was, arguing that he’s been “manipulate[d]” by “the Nazis and neo-Nazis” because, “[o]therwise, it is hard to account for how President Zelenskyy can preside…over a society where neo-Nazis” You are allowed to have complete freedom.

Lavrov continued to ramble (click “expand”):

When he keeps saying that his grandfather was a Tartan — look at the laws that President Zelenskyy, which claims to be a global citizen — well, look at the laws about the indigenous nations and ethnicities of Ukraine, not mentioning the Russian nation. It is absurd that a neo Nazi president would support legislation banning Russian at school. This is a terrible policy, both in education and in daily life. They imposed a prohibition on just asking for — for drugs and medications in a pharmacy in Russian and in — in the — the Crimea — Russia, they have three official languages: Russian, the Crimea-Tartan language, and Ukrainian language. Every Russian citizen living in Crimea is entitled to speak his language to any local authority. 

I can numerate facts for quite a long — you know those striking images and salient things and you don’t have time to ruse and read the facts and just spend at least half an hour visiting our website, the foreign ministry website and the defense ministry website. Your voices will not be heard. I know that — a French journalist — you know, yesterday, actually, President Macron said that accusing Zelenskyy and Ukraine of the rampant nationalism is a lies [sic]. He did. However, his French colleague, a journalist, replied. She visited Donbass and she described the bombings and shelling of schools and the killings of two women, that worked in that school and — and she put to shame all of the western politicians that turn a deaf ear, a blind eye on to that. It was not allowed on air. It’s still available online, however. Learn more. Don’t try to pretend this — that this American action movie is developing according to your plan of absolute good and absolute evil.

In contrast to Lavrov’s lies, ABC journalists aired showed the real story, including senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell reporting from Kyiv that “Russian attacks” were “escalating” with “video circulating online…showing Ukrainian civilians increasingly in the crossfire…and civilian infrastructure, also being targeted.”

“Bombed out streets, homes leveled, and emergency workers searching for survivors. Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine. It has been relentlessly shelled over several days by the Ukrainian military.,” he said.

On Wednesday, Pannell visited Ukraine’s “largest children’s hospital, where the patients…have been moved to the basement amid fears an attack could come at any moment.”

Matt Gutman, a senior correspondent for the Polish-Ukraine border, reported that one million refugees had fled to Ukraine. The United Nations has predicted it will rise to four million.

Also during the presser, NBC’s Keir Simmons asked from Moscow about “Putin’s reasoning” for the invasion amid speculation he’s “erratic and isolated” and then whether Lavrow would “reassure the world that Russia would not fire a nuclear weapon in anger, would not fire a first strike.”

In one other notable highlight, far-left U.K. news anchor Cathy Newman of Channel 4 — who suffered a meltdown at having to interview Jordan Peterson — asked how Lavrov could “sleep at night knowing that Russian bombs and bullets are killing children.”

Lavrov denied any Russian role, so Newman demanded to know if he’s “preparing your defense in a war crimes tribunal” and then if he considered the fact that her “blood is on your hands” (click “expand”):

LAVROV: It is impossible to say more than what has already been said. Every human life has been lived before. All hostilities end in casualties among civilians and soldiers. The special operation requires that all troops involved in it use high-provision guns to make the facilities, military infrastructure and sleeping quarters inoperable for Ukrainian soldiers. These troops are not a target for strikes. I can only render condolences to all those who are —

NEWMAN: [Inaudible]It is said that high precision cannot be used. But hundreds of civilians are reportedly already — died. The International Criminal Court is investigating this. Do you think that this is something you are doing to prepare for your defence in the war crimes tribunal?

LAVROV: I — I know your desire to ask those tricky and sharp questions and you will incite your [inaudible] that this is your — this is your job. It’s not about mass media, but rather about being a tool of hammering it into people’s mind the exact things that the western leaders need. Once again, I reiterate I don’t justify any action that leads to the losses in civilians, but the collateral damage coinage was not invented by us, but by our western colleagues during their reckless undertakings in Iraq and other countries before that in Latin America, in Libya. Have you ever tried applying this emotional zeal — same degree of emotional zeal — when — when hundreds of thousands of civilians lost their lives in Iraq or Libya or Syria. I can — I can see that you’re asking rhetorical questions.

NEWMAN: [Inaudible]This is your war. Polina’s blood is on your hands, isn’t it, Mr. Lavrov?

LAVROV: You know, I wouldn’t play these games. Your role is that of a talkshow host. If you want to know my position, I have made it clear in every detail and really with respect to the humanitarian aspects of the operation, but you know, I — I know that you will provide the coverage that you need, but just probably any correspondent has a conscience, even if he or she is taking an order from someone. Remember how it was seven to eighteen years ago that thousands of girls, boys, and older people were massacred in Donbass by Ukraine. Visit our website. I really wouldn’t to take your time to engage in many hours of enlisting the details and if you were preoccupied by the humanitarian aftereffects of the hostilities, please — please study these pages that we have on the websites.

Click here to see the ABC transcript relevant from March 3.