given such a false equivalence, and even more whataboutism, it is then good that that opinion is not the opinion of most countries in the world (by UN vote)

after all, fewer than 3% of countries, representing fewer than 3% of people in the world, were willing to go on record saying they trust russia's claims and excuses when they said the same thing

> When two governments give mutually exclusive statements, you can't just pick one country and say this one is always lying

I didn't say they're always lying, I pointed out that's simply the default state until russia PROVES its claims.

can we do that? it depends: is one of them russia, a country with a long history of lying more often than telling the truth on matters such as this?

if so, then you totally can treat it as the default, because again, and for the third time: X being dishonest doesn't make russia honest, only russia being honest makes russia honest

meanwhile, you can't just ignore russia's dishonesty by resorting to whataboutism and finger pointing and 'but america/Ukraine/the west...': you must address russia's dishonesty directly.

> that just makes you a russophobe

does it though? That doesn't seem to actually be the case.

indeed, calling the world's totally normal reaction to russia's history of dishonesty "russophobia" seems a little defensive and russophilic