Official messages about telephone conversations between leaders of great powers are a very special genre that is subject to very specific laws.
This genre does not tolerate verbal curls, heat of emotions, flights of thoughts and fantasy.
Naturally, there are dizzying political dramas lurking behind so many high-level telephone rendezvous.
But the official communiqués (pardon my French), composed of rounded and emphatically calm phrases, are intended only to hint at these dramas, and nothing more.
The official announcement of the telephone conversations between the presidents of Russia and France on Monday, September 14, 2020 was no exception.
Here is a verbatim quote from a message that appeared on the Kremlin's website: “During the consideration of the internal Ukrainian conflict, concern was expressed about the lack of progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which remain the uncontested basis for settlement.
Vladimir Putin paid special attention to Kiev's attempts to interpret these agreements in its own way and to selectively approach the observance of the obligations undertaken, including within the framework of the Normandy format. "
Dry and without emotion - everything is as it should be.
But it had to happen!
Recently, well-known Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon published a sensational interview with the disgraced former head of the presidential administration of Vladimir Zelensky, Andriy Bogdan.
After reading this interview, the lines of the Kremlin's official message, cited above, sparing on emotions, suddenly begin to play with new colors.
I'll make a reservation right away: for reasons that do not need a particularly detailed decoding, I am very critical of Dmitry Gordon.
How else, in fact, can a Russian journalist relate to his “colleague” from Kiev, who is proud of his status as a “volunteer assistant and freelance employee” of the Security Service of Ukraine?
But what Dmitry Gordon cannot be denied is in the ability to promote his interlocutors, to challenge them to frankness, to provoke to downright amazing confessions.
Andriy Bogdan, who left the post of head of Zelensky's presidential office in February this year, also succumbed to this "magic of Gordon."
For example, here is a fragment of an interview in which Bogdan describes the first face-to-face meeting of the presidents of Russia and Ukraine.
Question: "Has Putin treated Zelensky with respect?"
Answer: “Yes, very respectfully.
And one could feel his desire to find common ground.
During the conversation, it seemed to me, he drew an analogy between himself, the young elected president, and Vladimir Zelensky. "
The amazed Gordon asks again: "How did Putin behave with Zelensky?"
- "Respectfully."
- "For you?"
- "Yes".
- "Emphatically respectful?"
“Very respectful.
I tell you: there ... I don't know how it is now, but at that time he felt that he wanted to find some solution to the problem.
But I don't know from what motives: from economic, from political ... It seems to me that from political motives as well.
Zelensky has fierce support, including in Russia. "
The last couple of sentences can, of course, only cause laughter.
But this is not at all important now.
Let's scroll the conversation forward a bit.
Reflecting on the current relations between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Andriy Bogdan makes a downright astonishing confession: “What I see - it seems to me that we threw him harshly.”
- "Putin?"
- "Uh-huh."
- "They promised one thing - they did another."
- "Well yes.
They promised one thing - they did nothing. "
The curtain.
It seems to me that further comments are completely redundant.
No, though.
Something to say is absolutely necessary.
As you know, it is customary in Ukraine to contemptuously call those who say that official Kiev does not behave very correctly in relation to Russia.
So if Andrei Bogdan is a "quilted jacket", then it is very unusual.
Before his appointment as head of the presidential administration of Ukraine, Bogdan was a “volunteer” for three years - a frequent visitor to the front line.
A retired official is a person who is incredibly difficult to reproach for being overly sympathetic to Moscow or the Donbass republics.
And Andrey Bogdan is not an outside observer like me.
Andriy Bogdan is a politician who until recently was in the very heart of the Ukrainian government.
The combination of these two circumstances gives the words of a retired official special weight and special significance.
I don't need to add anything else.
Dmitry Gordon and Andrey Bogdan did all the work for me.
I would like, of course, to understand what went wrong.
Why did Volodymyr Zelensky, who promised the Ukrainians the beginning of a new political era, in terms of his ability to throw (please note that this word was not used by me, but by his recent closest associate in relation to the Ukrainian president) turned out to be quite a worthy colleague of those Kiev politicians whom he promised to throw into the landfill stories?
I don’t want to, I don’t really want to do unnecessary advertising to Dmitry Gordon, but you cannot argue against the necessity.
Read Andrey Bogdan's interview.
Zelenskiy appears there in all his splendor (or, to be more precise, in all his absence).
However, if you don't want to, you don't have to read it.
You already know the main thing about Vladimir Zelensky.
The current president of Ukraine is a person who throws.
I advise Andrey Bogdan, before it's too late, to issue his copyright for this phrase.
The number of those wishing to pronounce it in the future will obviously only increase.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.