The Ukrainian leader failed to use their interview to signal a willingness to pursue peace talks, the podcaster has said
Soviet-born computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman has rebuked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky for verbally attacking Russian President Vladimir Putin on his show in early January. During their three-hour-long conversation, Zelensky, among other things, called Putin “sick” and admitted that he “despises” all Russians.
In a video address on Monday, Fridman stressed that he gave the Ukrainian leader “every single chance to signal willingness to negotiate” a peaceful settlement to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
“I do not think he took it and instead chose to speak very crude words towards Vladimir Putin,” he said.
The podcaster noted that when a “world leader [is] speaking about another world leader during a historic opportunity for peace, crude words of disrespect, while powerful, may harm negotiations.”
“Peacemaking in this situation requires compromise in order to avoid further death and suffering, and I believe it requires treating the other leader with the seriousness you expect him to treat you with,” he explained.
“You need to take him as a serious person, who loves his country and his people,” Fridman added.
The podcaster claimed that the goal of the podcast was to provide Zelensky with an opportunity to “extend the olive branch… while also putting my ego aside and letting the [the Ukrainian leader] shine.”
Following the interview, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, said that the Ukrainian leader has “broken the rules of standard political correctness between warring countries.”
As a result of his statements, “a personal vendetta” against Zelensky by the Russian people “should now not end after his removal from office,” Medvedev stressed.
