Putin was asked ‘Could you give political asylum to Zelensky?’; said he would.
20 December 2024, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
At the end of each year, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin holds an extremely lengthy live-telecast Q&A with audience and with callers and other communicants from throughout the country, and this year’s was on December 19th. It lasted 4 hours and 26 minutes. (Obviously, there is no prepared text for such an event. He doesn’t need any; his reliable total-recall memory is part of the reason why he is able to answer even detailed questions — and some of these were that — without having such.) One of the questions was “Could you give political asylum to Zelensky?’” His answer was:
I don’t know, I don’t think it will be necessary. I think it’s quite possible, I don’t know what he will do, but it’s quite possible that he, like some people from the top political leadership of Ukraine – they have left for abroad – will leave. He will be supported by those people whose interests he serves today.
If he, excuse me, suddenly, like a jack-in-the-box, appeared somewhere and said: I need political asylum, Russia does not refuse anyone.
I then did a web-search of the phrase “was refused asylum by Russia.” None of the resulting finds referred to any such person; and, furthermore, the website of the relevant U.N. agency, UNHCR, has a page “Asylum application process” for Russia, which opens: “Your asylum application and application for temporary asylum (TA) must be accepted regardless of your legal status in the Russian Federation or your ability to present identity documents.” That page also includes a detailed diagram, “Procedure diagram – refugee status,” and if the applicant ends up being denied that permanent status, the applicant can appeal that decision to a specific appeals court that handles such appeals. Nothing is shown there for “Negative decision (rejection.” Given that my web-search indicated no one who “was refused asylum by Russia,” there is no indication that anyone has ever been forcibly ejected from Russia after having appealed for asylum there. The likelihood, therefore, that Zelensky would be the first, appears to be small to none. I was unable to find any counter-evidence against Putin’s “Russia does not refuse anyone.”
It goes on to say:
“Asylum-Seeker Certificate of Consideration on the Merits” is valid for three months, and within this time period, a decision should be reached on your case. Exceptionally, the processing time may be extended for another 3 months, in which case the asylum-seeker’s certificate will be extended. This certificate also serves as an identity document and proof of your legal stay in Russia.
While your asylum application is being assessed, you are protected against forced return to your country of origin. Any attempt to expel or deport you during this time would be a serious violation of the Russian legislation and the 1951 Convention.
After your claim is reviewed, a decision will be made to either recognize you as a refugee or to reject your application. If you are recognized as a refugee, you will be issued a Refugee Certificate. Refugee status is not time-limited, but you must approach the MOI Migration Department territorial branch every year to re-register.
Russia’s Pravda headlined on December 19th, “Putin: Russia would not deny political asylum to Zelensky if he asked for it: Putin does not mind granting Zelensky political asylum in Russia”, and opened: “Russia does not refuse asylum to anyone and may consider granting it to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said [in] his Q&A conference on December 19.” My own expectation would be that even if an application for permanent refugee status by Zelensky would be denied, Russia would refuse to comply with an extradition request for him from any country. Though Zelensky would probably be widely despised in Russia, he would be safe there, and would probably have plenty of opportunities to address the Russian public with his views on the matter. Although many people wouldn’t trust what he says, he would have a public there who would very much want to hear his side of the story.
(Perhaps the French Government should request the U.S. Government to return the Statue of Liberty so that they’ll be able to offer it to Russia instead.)
Another example of Putin’s presentation to the Russian people was the topic of my 3 March 2024 article “Putin’s State-Of-The-Union Address, to Compare with Biden’s on March 7th”. It opened:
On March 7th, U.S. President Biden will be delivering his SOTU to the American People; and, so, I offer here a representative 55% of the SOTU that Russian President Putin on February 29th delivered to the Russian people (the complete one is at http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/73585) …
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.