We oppose Putin’s invasion, and the white-washing of Ukrainian ultra-nationalism

Written by: Nick G. on 4 March 2022

Last night, there was a moment of high drama on the ABC’s Q and A talk show when host Stan Grant suddenly turned on a young lad and threw him out of the show’s audience.

The show’s main focus was on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and both the panel and the audience were strongly behind Ukraine’s resistance.

For our part, we have condemned Putin’s invasion and labelled it an act of criminal aggression.

The young lad, Sasha Gillies-Lekakis, had an opposite view. 

"As someone who comes from the Russian community here in Australia, I've been pretty outraged by the narrative depicted by our media, with Ukraine as the good guy and Russia as the bad guy," he said.

"Believe it or not, there are a lot of Russians here and around the world that support what Putin's doing in Ukraine, myself included. Since 2014, the Ukraine has besieged the Russian populations in Donetsk and Luhansk unprovoked, killing an estimated 13,000 people."

At this point, Sasha was heckled by members of the audience. Grant did not stop the heckling but disputed the figure quoted, saying that not all of those killed were Ukrainian Russians.

He then ignored the questioner.

The show went on to other topics, notably, the flooding that has hit the eastern coast.

After ten or fifteen minutes, Grant suddenly addressed the young man, saying "Something has been bothering me, I have to admit, since we had Sasha's question earlier about Russia, and it's been playing on my mind," and demanded that he immediately leave.

It was a Stan Grant “Putin moment” when a person who had politely raised an unpopular and dissenting view, was silenced and removed. He had not been disruptive, and had only managed to ask a part of his question that challenged the mainstream US/NATO narrative.

Grant has spoken eloquently, passionately, about racism in Australia. That is good. However, he is a very conservative person who acts as a cheerleader for US imperialism and advocates its “leadership of the free world”. 

He is a Senior Fellow of the US armament companies-funded think tank, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI – also called the “Australians Supporting Predatory Imperialism”).  

Last night that slip was showing when he took offence at Sascha’s challenge to the US narrative on the Ukrainian crisis, and threw him out of the audience. 

The ruthless censoring of Sasha's views challenging the US/NATO war narrative reflects the intensifying imperialist conflict and the sycophantic Australian government as mouthpiece of US imperialism.

We repeat our condemnation of Putin’s invasion.  

But there must be no white-washing or refusal to acknowledge that dark side of Ukrainian ultra-nationalism manifested in the likes of the Azov Battalion, which had been referred to in the show that preceded Q and A, Foreign Correspondent.

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