At a press conference on August 8 in Belgrade with Serbian President Vucic and acting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Michael Martens, reporter for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, asked Zelensky if there were anything Europeans could do help him kill more Russians. The Russian Embassy in Berlin has launched legal proceedings.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova: “The journalist’s statement contains direct signs of the offense provided for under Part 2 of Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code. From a legal standpoint, public calls for the destruction of people on the basis of nationality are unacceptable, regardless of the speaker’s professional status. In this situation, the investigation will seek an arrest in absentia in order to establish the defendant’s legal status.” Martens, whose grandfather, he was shocked to learn, was a member of Hitler’s general staff, claimed he was only referring to Russian soldiers.
