In early June 2023, the Russian media and Telegram channels wrote that the President of Ukraine humiliated: supposedly the head of the government of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel during the international forum showed with his fingers that Zelensky should be silent. We decided to check if this is so.
Information messages about the Bettel gesture appeared In the Russian media on June 2, the day after the meeting of the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the President of Ukraine at the Summit in Moldova. On June 3, the news picked up the majority of the pro -Kremlin media: ""RIA Novosti" NTV, "Russian newspaper" Lenta.ru, "Gazeta.ru" RT And many others. Many Telegram channels wrote about this, for example "Putin in Telegram"(242,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Pool N3"(203,000),"Ostashko! Important"(118 000). These publications claimed that Bettel showed Zelensky a characteristic gesture, depicting his open and closing mouth with his hand. In confirmation of this, as a rule, a video was posted from the meeting.
The meeting of Zelensky and Bettel occurred on June 1, in Mimi castle In the Moldavian village of Bulboak. These days passed there summit The European political community is an event in which the leaders of 45 countries took part. It was there that the distributed fragment of the video was shot. The record shows that next to Zelensky and Bettel are the President of Serbia Alexander Vuchich, Switzerland President Alain Berse and President of Montenegro Yakov Milatovich.
In the official protocol video, posted on the website of the EU Council and shot immediately after the official photographing ceremony, only the first episode of communication between Vucich, Zelensky and Bettel was entered. Full version The Associated Press agency has. First, Bettel brings Zelensky to Vuchich and other leaders to whom the President of Ukraine presses his hands (1:50), then turns to Zelensky and shows a finger at the President of Serbia (2:12), after which Zelensky says something to Vuchich, and then presses his hand to his heart (2:31).
Following this, Zelensky nods, and the group of politicians goes to the place of negotiations. Zelensky goes ahead ahead, Bettel - next to Vucich. It was at this moment that the Prime Minister of Luxembourg addresses Vuchich and Zelensky and makes the same gesture with his hand: AP is removed from another angle.
The President of Serbia is considered a pro -Russian politician. For example, in April on press conferences Vuchich said that supporters of Ukraine and the West invite him to spoil relations with Vladimir Putin. In addition, he said that Serbia is not going to supply Ukraine with weapons. Also, Serbia did not join the sanctions introduced against Russia after a full -scale invasion of Ukraine.
It was in this context that Vuchich and Zelensky in Moldova occurred. After the news of the "humiliating gesture" Bettel was published by the Russian media, the Luxembourg edition Tageblatt Applied for clarifications to the press service of the Prime Minister of the country. Bettel answered himself: he categorically rejected the assumption of an offensive gesture and explained that at that moment he told Vucich and Zelensky about “how important it is to talk not about each other, but with each other.”
The content of the conversation with Bettel and Zelensky is confirmed by Alexander Vucich. The day after the summit in Moldova, he told About this meeting on the air of the Serbian television channel TV PRVA. “Why don't I shake my hand to the president of a large country who did not recognize Kosovo and did nothing bad Serbia,” Vucich said. The Serbian president also noted that Zelensky did not talk about sanctions against Russia: “We met for the first time, why should he suddenly talk about sanctions in the second sentence?”
Judging by the statements of the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the President of Serbia, the interpretation of the Ksavier Bettel gesture as a call to shut up, addressed to Zelensky, in no way corresponds to the context of the meeting in Moldova. This was the first conversation of the leaders of Serbia and Ukraine, to whom even the pro -Russian politician Alexander Vucich was pleased. The explanation of the gesture presented by Bettel as a call to speak more with each other is much more likely than the interpretation mentioned in the Russian media.
Photo on the cover: EU Council
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