Russian UN representative accuses LCI of promoting ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Crimea — RT in French

A passage by the LCI channel on the plans for the “de-Russianization” of Crimea in the event of reconquest by kyiv did not go unnoticed, so much so that the Russian representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy denounced it during a Security Council meeting.

Despite the soft objections of David Pujadas during the debate on the merits of the “derussification” of the Crimea, Moscow did not seem to find the content of LCI very balanced.

The First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy mentioned during his speech before the Security Council on February 6 a passage from January 5 of the French news channel which had aroused many reactions on the networks social.

“What do you want us to think when on one of the French national television channels some raging commentators talk live a few days ago about cleaning Crimea of ​​ethnic Russians after its future liberation?” he said. during his long speech.

“At the same time they argued that to keep the peninsula in Ukraine one would have to raise the question of the deportation of the entire population of Crimea, or a large part of it, since almost all its inhabitants are loyal to Russia and supporting President Putin,” he said.

And the diplomat concludes: “It appears that when it comes to Russia, the sensitive European public does not disdain ethnic cleansing, just as at the time the German fascists had drawn up a similar plan for our country.”

What do you want us to think when on one of the French national television channels some raging commentators talk live a few days ago about cleaning Crimea of ​​ethnic Russians?

The passage to which the representative is obviously referring, without mentioning the name of the channel or the speakers, is the program 24H Pujadas of Thursday January 5, 2023, in which a Ukrainian report was presented which provides for a plan for the “de-Russianization” of Crimea in the event of conquest by kyiv of this territory which it no longer controls since 2014.

A radical ethnic plan

“How to reintegrate a territory populated by 2/3 of Russians, well the first step is to make these Russians leave, in particular the last ones who settled or those who worked openly with the occupier”, explained a journalist on the set, further specifying that according to kyiv, “the ordinary people of Crimea will not be punished”.

While the ethnically Russian population of Crimea amounted to almost 69% in 2018, it would have been only 58.5% in 2001 according to information from kyiv, which would mean according to this logic that it would be necessary to deport a significant part of the population of the peninsula in Russia.

The second stage of the plan would be to “derussify institutions and infrastructures”, hunt down “collaborators” or even demolish the Crimean bridge.

“This is what is likely to happen and it may be painful”

“It’s very simple, there are people who came to Crimea violating Ukrainian legislation […] they did not ask to be residents of Ukraine”, justified the Franco-Ukrainian journalist Marianna Perebensiuk. “Let’s start by applying the law, it’s as simple as that,” she insisted.

“You had between 2014 and 2012 [2022] also a number of Russians who settled and who took, who stole, it’s a theft it’s illegal, properties, houses that belonged to Ukrainians from Crimea, “said in the same vein the essayist and senior civil servant Nicolas Tenzer, arguing that those who left Crimea in 2014 should be offered to return and recover their property.

“I remind you that after the Second World War you had massive population transfers,” explained journalist Jean Quatremer, acknowledging in passing that this kind of event was “painful”. “This is what is likely to happen and it is likely to be painful”, he conceded when the presenter David Pujadas pointed out to him that these uses were those of ancient times and today took on “a whole other meaning”.

“The exchange of populations can perfectly be provided for by the treaties”, he further specified, adding all the same that this kind of displacement was always “a horror”.

Beyond the comments of the speakers, it is the detached, even complacent tone of the debate which has provoked a number of reactions on social networks, some Internet users and observers accusing LCI of trivializing a plan of ethnic cleansing.