Russia's Channel One takes its interview with former head of Pentagon off the air
Vladimir Pozner’s interview with Former United States Secretary of Defense William Perry was taken off the air. According to Pozner, the program would eventually air but he did not specify when that would happen, Meduza reports.
The program was scheduled to be aired on April 9 according to an announcement on Pozner’s website. The announcement has since been deleted but a cached copy was saved in Google’s search engine. Pozner’s explanation was that the management of Channel One decided the program would cause discord, given that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was accused of bombing civilians with chemical weapons.
Western countries accused al-Assad’s troops of using chemical weapons against the civilian population in the city of Douma, near Damascus. On April 7, several human rights organizations stated that Syrian helicopters dropped bombs with sarin or chlorine on the city. An estimated 40 to 70 people died. Both Syria and Russia said the accusations were lies.
William Perry was the United States Secretary of Defense in 1994 to 1997 under the administration of then-US President Bill Clinton.