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Notes -
These symbolic concerns are a price to pay for interviewing a serious politician who has to care about the image he presents to the world. It is entirely possible that for Zelenskyy, the interview would have become net-negative if conducted in Russian.
I suppose if you were to interview a US politician, even one in favor of cannabis legalization, they would refuse a joint during the interview, even if that would make the interview "more intimate, more personable, and less stilted". They would correctly conclude that a podcast of them being high would not play well with their voters. Likewise, Zelenskyy can not afford to look Russian.
If Friedmann is more interested in having cozy intimate interviews than having interviews with relevant statesmen, I am sure there would be no shortage of Ukrainians willing to talk with him in Russian, just like he would have no problem finding some random pothead willing to smoke a joint during the interview.
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