Ex-Putin Adviser’s Absurd Explanation Why It’s Acceptable For Ukraine To Be Invaded – But Not Russia

Vladimir Putin’s former adviser has attempted to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while complaining about Ukraine’s recent invasion of Russia.

Sergei Markov spoke to Times Radio on Monday morning about Kyiv’s surprise breach of Russian borders over the last week.

The offensive marks Ukraine’s deepest raid into Russia since the war began more than two years ago, and has been met with fury in Moscow (all while Russia still occupies 18% of Ukrainian land).

The former presidential adviser, and political scientist at Moscow State University, Markov said the Ukrainian advance is “is humiliation for Vladimir Putin and people, of course, are not happy”.

He added: “There are dozens of thousands of refugees from those regions and a lot of, millions, of people are taking part in the taking of some kind of humanitarian aid to those people and it’s clear that already during the week, the Russian army are not able to handle this problem.

“Even more, this morning, we know that some of the region in the Belgorod region, also nearby the Ukrainian border, also they started an evacuation. So it’s a real problem.”

But, Markov then said: “It’s reasonable, of course Russia does not respect the border of Ukraine, Ukraine will not respect the border of Russia, it’s absolutely understandable by most of the people.

“The difference is Russia is normal, democratic country, which respects the rights of the people.”

He said one example is that pro-Ukraine figures are given a platform on Russian TV but “not one programme” shows Russian perspective in Ukraine.

“It’s absolutely clear Russia [is] a much more free country than Ukraine,” he claimed.

Presenter Aasmah Mir then cut in: “I just want to conclude there, you’re saying it’s OK to invade Ukraine because Russia is a democracy and Ukraine is not.

“Many people do not agree with you – 88%, 90%, of people apparently voted for Vladimir Putin [in the last Russian election] and you think that is a genuine sign of a democratic state?”

The West largely condemned the recent presidential election in Russia for forcing voters to back Putin, and for illegally holding elections on occupied Ukrainian territory.

But Markov just falsely claimed: “It’s absolutely clear that Ukraine is a neo-colonial regime.”

He also claimed there were Russians living in Ukraine, at which point Mir corrected him by pointing out they were Russian-speaking Ukrainians.