This Wednesday evening, in QR on RTBF, Sacha Daout returned to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The intervention of Piotr Tolstoy, vice-president of the Duma (lower house of the parliament of the Russian Federation) did not go unnoticed.
It was, of course, about the war in Ukraine. Asked about this, Piotr Tolstoy said, as relayed by our colleagues from the public media: “The fault of Europe, of the European Union, is to imagine that it is playing an intermediary role in this conflict when it is part of this conflict with the economic war it is waging. against Russia, with the illegitimate sanctions it imposes and with the arms it supplies. CHow do you imagine supplying arms to the lands of a country which, in two to three weeks, will have completely changed? And the guest to add: “While we are talking, the military operation for the denazification of Ukraine is moving forward.”
This last sentence particularly irritated the other guests. Zénon Kowal, representative of the Ukrainian Embassy in Belgium, reacted immediately: “It’s intolerable what we hear here. You talk about denazification of Ukraine. When Germany decided that it was going to increase its budget, you say that it was not denazified enough. But vWe are completely off the mark, I’m sorry. It is a discourse that does not take into account reality. Are you talking about a coup in Ukraine? Well no. There was actually a protest on the Maidan that forced President Viktor Yanukovych who was stealing a dream of Europe from the young students he was collecting on the Maidan and he fled. Parliament called free elections which gave 73% to the president in office today (Volodymyr Zelensky, editor’s note). Don’t say he’s a neo-Nazi, he’s of Jewish descent.”
Philippe Lamberts, Ecolo MEP, also took the floor to denounce the Russian initiative. “For once, Mr. Tolstoy speaks the truth. Twice, iHe has just told us that Russia’s ambition is regime change in Kiev. It is indeed a military operation whose goal is to overthrow a legitimate government to replace it with a government, excuse me the expression, at the boot of Moscow.
“I don’t believe that Vladimir Putin will use nuclear power or attack Belgium”
Following his speech, however, Piotr Tolstoy wanted to reassure about the fear of a conflict that would degenerate into the use of nuclear weapons. “I don’t believe that Vladimir Putin will use nuclear power”he says. “Russia has never attacked anyone and won’t attack Belgium, don’t worry. The problem with the West and Europe today is that you are glued to rumors and social media. experts speak without having the evidence.”