#FLASH—Open Letter from EvgenyPopov @POPOVRTR to SimonOstrovsky @SimonOstrovsky

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OPEN LETTER

TO: SIMON OSTROVSKY (Vice Magazine)
FROM: EVGENY POPOV (Russia, Rossiya One Channel)

My dear colleague from beyond the ocean, Simon Ostrovsky!

You have been snitching on me for a whole year. You have been writing missives to competent authorities of the United States—NBC, Vice, Ukrainskaya Pravda, and even Shuster Live. Now you have also poured out a bucket of your irrepressible sadness on BBC.

I understand that you are hurt and that your soul is deeply wounded. Megalomania has deprived you of sleep. You were denied screen time on the Central Channel of the Russian Television, even though an interview with you was filmed. It must feel cruel and painful. At this rate, I am sure that you will eventually get to the State Department and the United Nations.

Be that as it may, I hope that you will find solace. I have been reading, watching and listening to your missives. With interest. For a whole year. I have been waiting for you to tell on NBC, in Vice or on Shuster Live, how, in secret from the militiamen that were guarding you, I took the phone numbers and emails of your sister and mother. How I then called them and wrote to them, saying: “Simon is fine. He is alive. Healthy. He will certainly soon be released.” I trust you have not forgotten about this? I think your mother and sister surely remember. The reason for your lapse of memory, Simon, you explained yourself: “it was not… good propaganda.”

Now let us talk about your interview. You surely remember that it was in Slavyansk. You were taken into custody because you were caught filming areas that the militiamen forbid you to shoot. I filmed you when you sat in the Commandant’s Office—what you call being imprisoned, even though you were detained simply to ascertain your identity.

Why do you lie to the BBC that “soon after his release Ostrovsky gave an interview to a correspondent of the TV Channel Rossiya One?” To your deep disappointment, you were not the only one we filmed. We shot everything, not turning off the camera for a second. Slavyansk was then already under siege; people were dying every day, shells were exploding, and there was no space in the hospitals for the wounded.

On the day that I had the misfortune of having a conversation with you, Ukrainian soldiers on APCs burned down a checkpoint on the approaches to Slavyansk. Along with the people who were defending it. On the same day, in Kramatorsk, the airport was seized by the Kiev Alpha unit. On the same day a UAF helicopter circled over the city and showered Slavyansk with leaflets.

Do you still think that I was obligated to show you? The sleek, chubby, well-fed-and-hydrated-“in captivity” you? Or maybe there were things that were more important?

You were released the following day. My extensive report came out much later. In other words, as they say in TV-lingo, you were “past your expiration date.” Moreover, you “went bad” long before our encounter.

Best regards to your sister and mother, Simon.

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