Uh oh, someone’s about to get called down to the Kremlin. Abby Martin, an anchor for the Russian government-funded RT news network (perhaps known better by its former name: Russia Today), is apparently not a fan of Russia’s recent sabre-rattling in Crimea, and used her show Breaking the Set as the platform for voicing her displeasure.
“Just because I work here, for RT, does not mean that I don’t have editorial independence,” she began. “And I can’t stress enough how strongly I am against any state intervention in a sovereign nation’s affairs. What Russia did is wrong.”
RT, which Reporters Without Borders has described as a “step of the state to control information,” is notoriously Putin-friendly, most recently describing the Russian military as “a stabilizing force for Ukraine” and generally framing Moscow’s intervention as a necessary evil.
Martin, who admitted to not being an expert on the intricacies of Ukrainian politics (an example that many pundits would do well to follow), finished her diatribe with a flourish of pro-Ukrainian sentiment. “Above all, my heart goes out to the Ukrainian people, who are now wedged as pawns in the middle of a global power chess game. They’re the real losers here,” she said. “All we can do now is hope for a peaceful outcome for a terrible situation and prevent another full-blown Cold War between multiple superpowers. Until then, I’ll keep telling the truth as I see it.”
In response to Martin’s tongue lashing of her employer’s main benefactor, RT has responded in a way that can best be described as passive aggressive: They’re dispatching her to Crimea. “In her comment Ms. Martin also noted that she does not possess a deep knowledge of reality of the situation in Crimea,” the network said in a statement. “As such we’ll be sending her to Crimea to give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story.”
Despite that, Martin recently told the Telegraph that that was not the case, saying “I am not going to Crimea despite the statement RT has made.”
