Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring mass media in the country, has warned several local media outlets not to publish an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky done on Sunday.
In a Zoom interaction with Russian news organisations which lasted for about 90 minutes, Zelensky had severely criticised the Vladimir Putin government for the ongoing conflict and said that Moscow had "abandoned" its soldiers in Ukraine or taken their bodies back home in "garbage bags".
Moscow is obviously not pleased, especially as Zelensky, a junior partner in the western camp, may be playing mind-games at the behest of the Atlantic alliance.
Shortly after details of the interview emerged online, Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor, issued a stern warning to the media outlets.
"A number of Russian media outlets, including those that are foreign media outlets acting as foreign agents, interviewed President of Ukraine V. Zelensky," it said in a statement.
"Roskomnadzor warns the Russian media to refuse to publish this interview. The interviewed media outlets are subject to scrutiny to determine the extent of responsibility and take action," the regulator added.
During the interaction, Zelensky also indicated that Kiev was "carefully" considering a Russian demand of Ukrainian neutrality and was prepared to hold discussions on the same.
"We are looking for peace, really, without delay. There is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey… Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it," said the Ukrainian President.
With the humanitarian situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol turning "catastrophic", it is believed – as also indicated by Zelensky – that a fresh round of negotiations between the two countries could begin in Turkey either later today or early Tuesday.
However, Moscow today highlighted that Kiev only wants to create the appearance of negotiations which won't work this time around.
"They succeeded in this when they sabotaged the Minsk agreements immediately after they were signed in February 2015 and eventually declared that they would not be implemented, as I said. Therefore, their ability to imitate the process – we know it well, and this time get off it won't work that way," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Serbian media according to Russian state-owned domestic news agency RIA Novosti.
Meanwhile, after US President Joe Biden on Saturday labeled Putin as a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power", France's President Emmanuel Macron has warned that any escalation "in words or action" could severely damage his mediation efforts aimed at resolving the situation in Ukraine.
"I wouldn't use terms like that because I'm still in talks with President Putin," the French President said during an interview to France-3 television on Sunday, insisting that everything should be done to make sure the situation doesn't get out of control.
Macron's objections to Biden's remarks are understandable as the French President is the main western interlocutor with Putin. The rift between France and the US is not new, as Paris has been publicly miffed by the Washington's decision to drop France form Australia UK US (AUKUS) security grouping in the Indo-Pacific region.
Papering over the dissonance, Biden, when asked by reporters in Poland on Sunday about his comment on Putin, said that he did not call for regime change in Moscow.
