And now to the view from Moscow. Our Ryan Chilcote is there as the
conflict accelerates in Ukraine, as do some Russians protests against
it.
Ryan. Good evening. Good to see you. First of all we understand now
that a former Kremlin official has criticized the Russian operations
in Ukraine. How significant is that?
I think it's significant Judy. His name is Arkady Makovich. He's
a former deputy prime minister. He's out of government. But you know
he's not so far out that he wouldn't have thought long and hard before
he made the comments that he did.
And he did break one of the cardinal rules here, which is he did
not refer to the conflict as a what the Kremlin insists. We've referred
to it as a special military operation in Ukraine.
He also, you know, I know him very well. I've interviewed more than
half a half a dozen times is the president of the International Chess
Federation, and maybe that's where some of this is coming from. Obviously,
chess is massive. In Russia. It's also massive in Ukraine, and there's
a huge debate going on in the chess world right now whether he should
be president because he's Russian.
Whether Russians should be able to play play chess and compete under
the Russian flag Dancer is no, just like in the Olympics,
and and what goes on for, you know, from here on and I think what's
extraordinary here as we are seeing people in the Russian elite,
if you will trying to figure out what they can sort of get away with,
if you will.
We heard a lot of Russian billionaires. Industrialists make very
careful comments about the conflict in Ukraine over the last couple
weeks, But our cardio Markovich is the first former government official
and I think it's meaningful and then separately from that Ryan yesterday
An employee of state television, interrupted on newscast live to
protest the fighting in Ukraine. She held up a sign that said, no
war. Do we know what's happened to her? Yes, we do. Judy. Her name
is Marina of Salonica. And today she appeared in court and she was
fined the equivalent of $250, which
By Russian standards is really a slap on the wrist. She could have
been punished much more severely. Now. We don't know that she's entirely
out of the woods legally speaking.
Because it is possible that prosecutor could go after her for violating
the Russian law about fake news on Russia's military activities in
Ukraine. If she was found to have fallen afoul of that law, then
she could be sent to jail.
For 15 years, obviously something much more severe than the $250.
But also you know, this was on state TV. Millions of Russians would
have seen it and again, Uh, Russians also get their news on things
like telegram, which is a messenger here, and you know, tens of millions
of Russians would have seen it there. I saw it on several message
groups.
Myself and Judy, Even the leading independent newspaper here in Russia.
Yes, there still is one independent newspaper called Novaya Gazeta.
Even they avoided using the words that were not supposed to and took
that poster that the protester had on.
That Russian TV set and reduced it to the words don't believe the
propaganda removing the words that could get that newspaper in trouble.
So there's a huge sensitivity right now about this law about fake
news and how people
Discuss what is happening in Ukraine. Brian Chilcote reporting tonight
from Moscow. Thank you, Ryan.