The Dutch Foreign Ministry was called upon to explain the speeches of Urgant and Posner in Amsterdam
Members of the Dutch Parliament from the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, Claire Martens and Ruben Brekelmans, were outraged by the fact that TV presenters Ivan Urgant and Vladimir Posner spoke in Amsterdam. The deputies demanded clarification of this situation from the head of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, Hanke Bruins Slot, and the Secretary of State for Culture and Media, Fleur Greper.
The deputies’ appeal consists of 11 questions and concerns the performance, which took place on May 28 at Theater Amsterdam, one of the main theaters in the capital of the Netherlands.
Are you familiar with the biography of these propagandists, who in their work take a pronounced pro-Russian position?
Posner and Urgant could have spread “Russian disinformation”
Parliamentarians drew attention to the fact that the target audience of Urgant and Posner’s speech were Russians in the Netherlands. They noticed that the show was conducted in Russian, and tickets were sold on an entirely Russian-language website. In this regard, Dutch politicians suggested that the performance of TV presenters previously working on Channel One could “contribute (implicitly or explicitly) to the spread of Russian disinformation and the Russian narrative.” At the same time, Russia proposed recognizing Ivan Urgant as a foreign agent.
It is noteworthy that in March 2023 Posner himself spoke out about the effect of Russian propaganda after the start of the Northern Military District. He admitted that he was ashamed of his profession and urged Russians not to trust anyone and to look only at facts and documents. He also stated that propaganda in Russia works very effectively and many people believe in its theses.
As a journalist, I can tell you that I am ashamed of my profession. I’m ashamed that [с ней] is happening. For lies that are presented as truth, for propaganda in the worst sense of the word. I shouldn’t say this, but I will. I’m actually an atheist, but if there is a hell, then many journalists will go there
In addition, Brekelmans and Martens ask government officials how this speech “relates with the policies of other cultural institutions to sever ties with Russia.” The question also states that Posner “does not condemn” Russia’s actions in Ukraine and “blames the West for this.”
“Are you ready to engage in a critical and incisive dialogue with the cultural sector on how to find the right compromise between freedom of expression and countering Russian propaganda?” – says the text of the appeal from Dutch politicians.
Posner previously explained why Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine
After the start of the SVO, Posner’s original program also disappeared from Channel One’s broadcast schedule. In March 2022, Pozner said that the reason was the fact that Channel One, after the start of the special operation in Ukraine, became an information channel and abandoned entertainment programs. March 6 Posner for the first time expressed his opinion about the special operation, a few days later it became known that his creative evening in Moscow was cancelled. The official reason is logistics problems.
Posner took part in an online meeting of the American Ubiquity University, where he expressed his opinion on the policies of Russia and the West after the start of the Northern Military District. He said he was trying “not to blame any particular country or person” for what happened. “Why [президент России Владимир] Did Putin do this? What was his motivation? The simple answer I heard was that he was crazy. But this is not a serious answer. President Putin can be called anything, but not crazy,” the journalist said then. At the same time, he noted that the intellectual elite in Russia does not support Putin’s policies.
Posner also suggested that Washington, namely the current American leader Joe Biden, was looking for the conflict. Western countries, according to the TV presenter, “teased the bear for quite a long time, hoping that the bear would react and fall into the trap,” meaning Ukraine.
The reason for what Putin did is, in principle, very simple – to make sure that Ukraine does not have the opportunity to become a member of NATO. Not now, which was impossible anyway, but also in the future. As far as I can tell, that’s the crux of the matter. Whether I agree with what he did and in what way is something completely different
How does Urgant live after the start of the special operation?
The “Evening Urgant” program, as well as a number of other entertainment shows on Channel One, stopped broadcasting in February 2022. Instead, they began showing socio-political programs. In September of the same year, entertainment programs began to return to the air, but “Evening Urgant” never appeared on the channel’s broadcast schedule. Against this background, rumors repeatedly arose about the closure of the show, but Channel One denied this information every time.
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On February 24, the day the special operation began in Ukraine, Urgant published a black square on social networks with the caption “Fear and pain.” Despite the suspension of activities on Channel One, the TV presenter did not leave Russia after the start of the SVO.
In 2023, Urgant gave a lecture at MGIMO at the invitation of teacher Yuri Kobaladze. The university management found out about this after the fact and were shocked. As the students said, after the meeting with Urgant, the leadership of MGIMO asked Kobaladze to invite military officers. Later it became known about the dismissal of the teacher. “Oh, vaudeville, vaudeville…” Urgant commented on the situation then.
Urgant also joined the appeal of artists, in which they asked the Commissioner for Human Rights under the President of Russia, Tatyana Moskalkova, to intervene in the case of director Evgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk (both are included by Rosfinmonitoring in the register of extremists and terrorists) to change their preventive measure. It was signed by 23 people, including actors Yulia Peresild, Denis Sukhov, Danila Kozlovsky, Veniamin Smekhov, Ksenia Rappoport, Evgeny Mironov, Timofey Tribuntsev, Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk (she participated in the play that led to the arrest).
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