A Russian journalist repeatedly interrupted President Barack Obama’s final press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, according to reporters in the room.
Andrei Sitov, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for TASS, a Russian state-run news agency, confirmed in an email to TPM that he had yelled questions to the President with little success.
“I think it would have been only fair given that President Obama and the White House in general have engaged in relentless Russia-bashing for weeks,” Sitov wrote.
“In Russia we have a saying – ‘swing your fists after the fight’. It describes a sore loser,” he continued. “I think this is what we are seeing now and that the aim is mostly to delegitimize President-Elect Trump. But it does hurt the US-Russian relations, unfortunately.”
The Huffington Post’s Jennifer Bendery wrote on Twitter from the briefing room that a Russian reporter in the room yelled “you attacked Russia” at the President:
Russian reporter in Obama’s final presser shouts, for the third time, that he wants a question. “You attacked Russia.” (He did not get a ?)
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) January 18, 2017
Sonia Dridi, a foreign correspondent for various European publications, reported a similar interruption:
A Russian journalist at the last #Obama press briefing keeps asking “Mr President a question for #Russia !!”
— Sonia Dridi (@Sonia_Dridi) January 18, 2017
Versha Sharma of NowThis News appeared to write about the same reporter, identifying him as the Washington bureau chief for TASS.
“Mr. President, a question from Russia. You attacked the country.” -tall man who bogarted my position under false pretenses at this briefing
— Versha Sharma (@versharma) January 18, 2017
Turns out the guy trying to ask about Obama attacking Russia is the bureau chief for TASS.
— Versha Sharma (@versharma) January 18, 2017
Turns out the guy trying to ask about Obama attacking Russia is the bureau chief for TASS.
— Versha Sharma (@versharma) January 18, 2017
He thanked and apologized to me at the end for getting in front of me
— Versha Sharma (@versharma) January 18, 2017
TASS is a wire news agency funded / owned by the Russian gov’t, so makes sense he would want to confront Obama about ‘attacking’ Russia
— Versha Sharma (@versharma) January 18, 2017
The incident in some ways mirrored President-elect Donald Trump’s refusal to answer a question from CNN’s Jim Acosta, who repeatedly said “you’re attacking our news organization!” at a press conference last week but did not get a response from Trump. Reporters inside the White House press briefing room wrote that the Russian journalist yelled that Obama had “attacked” Russia, but unlike Trump, Obama did not appear to acknowledge the reporter at all.
Asked about the similarity, Sitov wrote TPM, “it’s up to you to decide.”
“But I think, given what President Obama had to say about the importance of the press with its hard questions, it would have served them well to recognize me,” he continued. “I did not notice any particularly hard questions in the news conference.”
This post has been updated.
Oh those crazy Russians!!!
Now we know who gets the catbird seat in the Trump press room!
Tass, the official government controlled propaganda fake news agency of the Russian Government.
I don’t really know what to make of this. Do foreign correspondents regularly attend Presidential press conferences? (I should know that, but I don’t.) Have they been called on in the past? Is it because of the kind of interruption this was that the President didn’t acknowledge this reporter?
Of course it mirrored it. Putin’s lap-dogs are now running interference for Trump, setting up pranks and counter-narratives for Trump and his minions to point to and say, “See, both sides do it,” or, “We’re just doing what the Democrats / previous administration / Obama did.”
It’s gonna be a long - looong - four fucking years.