A top host on a Russian State controlled media channel has been suspended after he called for Ukrainian children who viewed Soviet Russia as an occupier to be drowned or burned in their homes.
Russia Today (RT) host Anton Krasovsky said Ukrainian children should be “thrown straight into a river with a strong current” or “burned in a hut” for calling Russians occupiers.
He also said Ukraine is “not supposed to exist at all” and joked about Russian soldiers raping “grannies” on one of the network’s shows last week, per translations by journalist Julia Davis, who runs the Russian Media Monitor.
In an interview last week on Thursday for the program “Antonyms”, Russian science fiction author Sergei Lukyanenko described his encounter with anti-Russian children while visiting Ukraine in the 1980s. Krasovsky’s remarks were in response to that account.
He advocated the execution of Ukrainian children who had been the targets of propaganda.
Simonyan rejected his controversial comments which led to his suspension. She also disassociated the network from Krasovsky’s divisive remarks.
“Anton Krasovsky’s comments were wild and disgusting. Perhaps Anton will explain what kind of temporary insanity caused them and why they came out of his mouth. It’s hard to believe that Krasovsky sincerely believed that children should be drowned,” she stated on Telegram.
Krasosvky, however, apologised in a social media post today, saying he got carried away and is really embarrassed.
Russia’s Investigative announced today that its chairman Alexander Bastrykin has requested a report into Krasovsky’s statements in response to an online user’s complaint.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, condemned what she called a targeted information attack against Krasovsky in a post that has since been deleted.
She referred to the RT host as a fantastically talented commentator of obvious and truthful information.