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Seemingly unfazed by the outrage his comments on Fox Business Channel have caused, the former US general who thinks the only solution to the Ukraine conflict is to “start killing Russians” has defended his stance, again speaking to Fox.
Robert H. Scales, the retired United States Army major general
whose outburst was aired by Fox on Tuesday, did not have to justify his
comments as such, as he was invited for a cozy conversation with
Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren to jokingly discuss the reaction to
his remarks.
READ MORE: Fox News analyst: ‘Start killing
Russians’ to save Ukraine (VIDEO)
Responding to the news that the Russian Investigative Committee
has opened a criminal probe into his statements on charges of
public calls for starting an aggressive war made in the media,
and that his remarks violated article 20 of the United Nations’
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that bans
any propaganda of war and instigation of discrimination, hatred
or violence, Scales shrugged it off by branding it “a Russian
form of war.”
“It’s the Russia version of the First Amendment – five years
in prison if you say something that makes [Russian President]
Vladimir Putin angry,” Scales told Fox News.
The only thing that appeared to bother the military analyst is
that he is not going to try any vodka or borsch in Russia due to
the criminal investigation.
READ
MORE: Probe launched into Fox News analyst’s ‘kill Russians’
comment
“I’m not concerned at all, I just kind of wish I could take a
vacation in Russia but I can guarantee, that’s not going to
happen,” he said.
Scales was seemingly surprised by the fact that his words reached
the Russians at all: “I got emails today from people in
Russia I never heard of before. I didn’t know Fox News was
watched in Russia.”
In the end, he insisted that everything he told Fox was “the
truth.”
“Fox is not Vladimir Putin’s favorite network, because as you saw
me on the clip you ran, we’re trying to tell the truth about
what’s going on in places like Ukraine and places like
Iran,” the former major general said.
According to him, “we all know that sanctions don’t work,
negotiations don’t work, we can’t push the red ‘reset’ button,
and the bottom line is, only military action by the Ukrainians
that we support will turn the tide.”
READ
MORE: US refusal to send weapons to Ukraine gives peace a chance
– top Russian MP
In the new interview, uploaded by Fox News on Friday, Scales used
a slightly milder rhetoric than in his previous appearance –
which, however, was partly repeated on air before the
conversation. Earlier, he alleged that “the only way the
United States can have any effect in this region and turn the
tide is start killing Russians…killing so many Russians that
even Putin’s media can’t hide the fact that Russians are
returning to their motherland in body bags.”
Washington has failed to provide any proof of the presence of
Russian troops in Ukraine – which Moscow categorically denies –
except for a handful of fuzzy satellite images of alleged Russian
hardware that the Russian Foreign Ministry has branded
“fake.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich earlier
condemned Scales’ statements, calling them “Russophobic”
and stressing that “the tone of the rampant anti-Russian
propaganda is being set by Washington officials.”
READ
MORE: Poroshenko: 11 EU states struck deal with Ukraine to
deliver weapons, including lethal
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that
Washington is sending “some $75 million of additional
non-lethal assistance” to Kiev, including drones and armored
Humvees. The US also announced earlier in March that it was
planning to send about 300 military advisors to train the
Ukrainian army from March through October.
It comes as a fragile ceasefire has settled in eastern Ukraine
and some of America’s NATO allies – notably Germany and France –
have spoken out against arming the Ukrainians with Western
weaponry.
The civil war in Ukraine’s southeast began in April 2014 after
Kiev sent its military to the area, as locals refused to
recognize the new coup-imposed authorities in the capital. The
fighting has seen over 6,000 killed and nearly 15,000 injured,
according to the UN Human Rights Office.