Watch A Russian News Anchor's Reaction When He Hears A Surprising Opinion

R BK is a Russian business news agency not known for the sort of over-the-top, pro-Kremlin coverage of state television channels. It is owned by a group led by Russian billionaire and Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

Still, over the course of a five-minute interview with the chairman of the Independent Association of Ukrainian Miners, the host of an RBK television program seemed to morph from reserved to agitated to angry.

The video below is in Russian, but even if you don't speak the language, the change of tone is obvious.

The guest, Mykhaylo Volinets, begins by claiming that, over the weekend, "men in masks with automatic weapons" had occupied a Donetsk mine and taken its general director prisoner.

"The majority of the Donetsk miners don't support the actions of [pro-Russian] separatists," he continues. "But many -- especially Russia -- are trying to destabilize the country's east. If it weren't for the actions of Russia to destabilize the situation we could peacefully resolve it. "

The anchor, Yury Tamantsev, now with his arms crossed, takes a long breath. He claims that a week ago he had seen images of miners protesting against the Ukrainian military operation in the region. It's hard to believe, he says, that they had changed their mind.

"There are different opinions," says Volinets, who goes on to argue that a range of complex measures should be taken to staunch the unrest, including negotiations and an end to violence. Nonetheless, he concludes, it's impossible as long as Russian arms are illegally crossing into Ukraine.

Now Tamantsev is agitated. He answers with a sentence that is marvelous for its unintentional irony.

Transcription is not really that correct.
At one moment an ancor asked why has Volinetz told him on the phone that the miners are divided over support of separatist movement but all of them are strongly against Ukrainian military operation in their city and now tells the opposite.
A union leader is certainly a propagandist, ancor was punked but he is still quite a polite to his guest. A channel is not interested in politics, all he has asked, does a situation in Ukraine affects their mining operations.
Guest’s behavior is strange to say the least. He is actually not answering any questions but reads his monologue and he is certainly nervous. Maybe he has a gun pointed at him there?

You and the anchor are liars because you have both mischaracterized and misrepesented the circumstances regardless of what was said or not said in Russian on the broadcast.

“At one moment an ancor asked why has Volinetz told him on the phone that the miners are divided over support of separatist movement but all of them are strongly against Ukrainian military operation in their city and now tells the opposite.”

Use of the adjective, “strongly”, is an exagerration and a misrepesentation amounting to a lie.

Saying the miners are all one way and are now all the “opposite” is another obvious exagerration used to misrepresent in what amounts to a lie. It is natural for the miners to be divided in their opinions under the ethnic circumstances prevailing in Donetsk. So, it is rather obvious the anchor lied, and you lied as well.

“A union leader is certainly a propagandist, ancor was punked but he is still quite a polite to his guest. A channel is not interested in politics, all he has asked, does a situation in Ukraine affects their mining operations.”

Saying, “A union leader is certainly a propagandist,” is deliberately misleading, because it falsely implies no union leader can ever be trusted to tell the truth in any circumstance, which then amounts to a lie.

Saying, “ancor was...quite a polite to his guest,” is a bald faced lie. The anchor, Yury Tamantsev, was very rude to his guest, Mykhaylo Volinets, by attempting to dictate a false narrative to his guest at the pain of being shutout of the interview if the guest refused to cooperate with the anchor’s lie.

Saying, “A channel is not interested in politics,” is another incredibly bad lie. The news, even the business news, exists for the purpose of influencing politics. Denying the role inextricable role of journalism in politics is an incredible denial of reality and a rather incredible lie to say the least.

“Guest’s behavior is strange to say the least. He is actually not answering any questions but reads his monologue and he is certainly nervous. Maybe he has a gun pointed at him there?”

Saying, “all he has asked, does a situation in Ukraine affects their mining operations,” is yet another lie, because you and the anchor have already acknowledged the masked gunmen and separatists were also the topic of the interview.

The readers do not have to understand spoken Russian to understand what you wrote in English or the demeanor of the Russian anchor.

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