I understand Freddie’s statement at the end and would like to say that this interview was very worthwhile. There’s so much to comment on. Too much. Suffice it to say, I was fascinated to hear the modern version of USSR political-speak. Knowing Putin is former KGB, it makes sense. Thanks for interviewing him and letting him have the time to make his case.

If you cannot handle encountering a viewpoint that disagrees with your own, then Unherd is probably not right for you. And while I think it’s clear that Freddie doesn’t buy any of the nonsense spewed by Polyanskiy, he is always probing of his subjects and challenges them to defend their positions. That level of journalistic skill and integrity is a major reason why I follow Unherd. And who in the mainstream media is giving Russian agents a platform to share their propaganda, let alone allowing it to go unchallenged?

On the merits of the substantive issue, I think it’s entirely reasonable to believe that Russia had legitimate security concerns about Ukraine. Even so, there is no way you can justify Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine or the barbarous manner in which they’ve prosecuted this war. Ukraine isn’t entirely without fault, but they’re not the ones invading a neighboring country and shelling and murdering civilians by the thousands.

And did you notice how Polanskiy was deliberately evasive — even coy — on the subject of nuclear escalation? It’s a transparent attempt to scare the west out of getting involved. The effort to hold the world hostage with threats of nuclear apocalypse is contemptible.

As a Swede I am not for us joining NATO. I think the west is as responsible as Russia in this conflict. And the censorship equally bad. We have a global crisis in energy, this makes it worse for all of us, there are no winners. Also, how we can let US with a senile president set the agenda…unbelievable
And, it the risk we take by escalating is not small

“Demilitarization” IS War.
The real problem is that the Russian leadership is so divorced from reality that it has zero capability to operate in the real world.
So the best question would have been: “who comes after Putin?”
No leader can come back from a debacle like this. Look for Great Events to happen after reality finally dawns on the Russian population.

Some of what Jacques Baud has written is interesting, but equally some of his predictions on the progression of the war seem to be driven by an instinctively pro-Russian bias and don’t seem to have been borne out by reality. The Kramatorsk cauldron may yet be encircled but Russia’s manpower and logistic problems still make that seem unlikely for the time being, thus “the Ukrainian defeat that is taking shape” seems to me rather premature conclusion. It could happen but the imponderables in play are too great to really make such confident assertions.
Not that I really care but when it comes to the various analysts of this war I read, I tend to take note and take count of those who actually make accurate predictions and how often. Michael Kofman for example both predicted the war and predicted there would be no mobilization on the Victory Day, despite breathless reporting from the media and even the Foreign Secretary. He currently predicts a low key partial mobilisation to keep the war going and not a general mobilisation that would be politically damaging and militarily dubious. A partial mobilisation of recently demobbed conscripts and other assorted reseverists (120,000 or so) with some kind of ruse could keep Russia in the field for a long war, where they could see if something turns up in their favour. Some of the quotes seem strange “This explains the high losses in the upper echelons of command, already observed in Afghanistan—but it also tells of the much more rigorous selection of staff-personnel than in the West.” – ah, if this is the case I can’t say we’ve noticed it too much, nor back in the 80s in Afghanistan either.
Also this order seems to have engage in bouts of “Polonophobia”, to use a Krelim term, claiming there were Polish saboteurs in the Donbass seeking to use chemical weapons against the Russian population there. I hear similar claims from Tankies like George Szamuely (who posted that the current events proved why Brezchev was right to have crushed the Prague spring because Dubček would have sought NATO expansion!) or George Galloway. Indeed that old chesnut of idiocy Oliver Stone was openly promoting his theory. All of which makes me suspicious of the least. And what a ironic state of affairs that the Postil, an organisation that supposedly is a “Traditional Catholic” outlet, would rather support the Orthodox church and the glitzy mob rule of Moscow instead of a nation that has shown more sacrifice and struggle for that Church than anywhere else would openly seek to traduce Poland and its concerns. I would maybe remind them that both Belloc and Chesterton were among those who were the most enthusiatic for Catholic Poland’s revival after 100 years of Orthodox oppression. A country that then suffered nearly 50 years of atheistic communist oppression. Maybe we should seek to understand them and their historic concerns rather than that of a country that brazenly poisons people on our territory.

Well done Freddie for conducting this extraordinary interview. I guess this guy has been primed for the Western press, though for me he lost credibility when he responded to your interrogation on ‘denazification’ – the comparison with BJ was ludicrous.
I wish you’d pressed him on what took place in the suburbs of Kiev, some of which has been caught on camera.

The West are the bad guys?

Should have asked him these questions:
A) Who built the Berlin Wall?
B) Those risking their lives to get over the wall, which way were they traveling?
C) Does he recall the height of Salisbury spire?
D) How disappointed is he that he won’t be able to buy a Big Mac in Moscow again?

Incredibly difficult interview, thank you for trying Freddie and Unherd. He went really low, driven purely by emotion and completely throwing rationality and common sense to the trash bin.

What I find incredible is that the people involved in running Russia seemingly believe their own propaganda even while the Russian army is visible disintegrating.

Given how unreliable Russia is I’m shocked they didn’t seek to join years ago.

He said they moved in to weaken the Ukraine army to “stop the war against the citizen population of Donbas”. Why didn’t they take that to the UN Human Rights group?

Bravo Freddie. Superb interview.

Dear Mr Sayers, please invite Scott Ritter for an interview, he would be able to articulate Russia’s reasoning (for good or ill) far better than Mr Polyanskiy did.

Really good interview. The end was strange though. An articulate, educated man in a very important position suddenly shoves a piece of paper with a qr code in front of the camera. Odd behaviour.

I genuinely appreciate Freddie getting this guy on camera.
However, the REALLY scary thing is… the Bureaucracy in Russia is not much better than USA. Take away the accent, insert Brooklyn, and this Dude takes over for Anthony Fauci.
They both will say anything to preserve themselves. Man o man, what a world.
Take it easy, we are still the “best of the worst”, but it’s not as wide of a margin as we think here in “The States”.

I agree with M Gatt’s reply to M TC below. I am ashamed of the British role in aggravating this whole situation with Ukraine/Russia. It is, as we are now reading in many places, the West fighting a proxy war, using Ukrainian soldiers. So any prolonging of this situation means more deaths of those said soldiers. And the ignorance of the West (and the British politicians and public) about the treatment of the Donbas region over the last eight years is horrifying. The breaking of the Minsk agreements. People should watch UK Column news for fair and objective reporting on this situation. It was good that Freddie Sayers/Unherd held this interview and I generally think he is fair and good, but I wish he had been less patronising and less obviously a propaganda arm of the our MSM. Mr Polyanskiy remained calm and polite throughout – a good diplomat, in other words. The Nazi elements in the Ukrainian army are absolutely to the point – they are paid for and supported by the Ukrainian government and have been perpetrating appalling atrocities against Ukraininan civilians which are then blamed on the Russian. If you are looking to the Western MSM, you will never hear the truth; they are totally biased.

I signed up in order to comment here, but if I were subscribing, I am afraid I would agree with you.

What is the point of listening to a packet of lies from this Russian puppet?

The average IQ of Russian policymakers is about 52.