Héloïse Goy, with Alexis Patri 10:26 a.m., April 06, 2022

Darius Rochebin interviews this Wednesday on LCI Dmitri Peskov, spokesperson for the Kremlin.

The journalist explains to Europe 1 how he managed to obtain this exclusive interview recorded before its broadcast, and what surprised him in the answers sent to him by this close collaborator of Vladimir Putin.

INTERVIEW

This is an exclusive interview with Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov broadcast this Wednesday afternoon LCI.

This right arm of Vladimir Putin for more than twenty years has been the pillar of Moscow's communication since the start of the war in Ukraine.

For more than half an hour, the journalist Darius Rochebin spoke with this Kremlin spokesman, who did not ask him any conditions upstream in the choice of questions.

The journalist reveals to Europe 1 how this exceptional interview was negotiated with this man who speaks very little to the Western media. 

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"I had met Dmitry Peskov seven years ago in Saint Petersburg, when I interviewed Vladimir Putin. Since then, we have kept the link. On several occasions, I have revived the Kremlin, according to the news “, explains Darius Rochebin.

“It is not at all a question of relaying what is obviously false”

The LCI journalist also reveals how he prepared this interview.

""Reflecting from the immediate topicality, that is to say Boutcha and the balance of power, we see that there is in their logic, which is very far from ours, a reality of the balance of strength that is reflected in their words.

That is to say the need, while keeping the military hand, to keep the hand on the negotiations, because sooner or later it will have to come to it", he explains.

“It is not at all a question of relaying what is obviously false”, warns the journalist.

"When he talks about Mariupol, I put him in front of the facts, and he manages as he wants to answer. For the rest, there are real questions that arise: do they recognize Zelensky? "They are ready to deal with him? These are answers that are objective, apart from propaganda."

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Darius Rochebin admits having been surprised by some of Dmitri Peskov's answers.

"The reality of the military report is nevertheless reflected in a report. For example, Dmitry Peskov said several times, speaking of Volodymyr Zelensky, 'the president of Ukraine'. They understood very well that the Ukrainians have very well resisted and that we must therefore reckon with him and with them", he observes.

“Peskov is a diplomat by training. He is surely more aware of Western realities than some others in the Kremlin. 'there comes a time when reality is hard to deny."

The entirety of this interview will be broadcast this Wednesday at 5 p.m. on LCI.