Patriarch KirillThe head of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered a sermon marking the Orthodox Epiphany in Moscow this week. Talk to whomever you wish.to defeat Russiausing the opportunity to make a threat to the West: “We pray that the Lord will rebuke these madmen and help them understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world.”
top promoters in Russia, From former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to State TV host Vladimir Solovyov, spreading the same not-so-subtle nuclear threat far and wide—yet Putin’s mouthpieces are now concerned that the “boy who cried wolf” routine is no longer taken seriously by their target audience in the West. The dilemma was demonstrated during the live broadcast of evening with Vladimir Solovyov. After the lineup of speaking heads took turns reiterating that Russia’s defeat would mean the end of the world, their energetic demeanor was suddenly deflated by Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Middle East Institute.
First of all, our main enemy is definitely the United States. What is the US response? They react to two things: the threat of physical extermination and the liquidation of a certain number of military personnel. What we know based on the wars in Vietnam and Korea is that the tens of thousands of American soldiers killed will cause great tension in public opinion in the United States. I will repeat: not several thousand, as in Afghanistan or Iraq, but a certain number of tens of thousands. Who will eliminate them, where they will be liquidated and in what way is completely irrelevant, but this is one of the goals if we want to influence the American leadership. We have absolutely nothing to lose.”
RT President Margarita Simonyan described the mood in the country: “In every house, in every kitchen and living room, in every courtyard, all conversations are only about what will happen next, how everything will end … I don’t see any possible course of events except That: First of all, you will not stop. I’m not talking about Ukraine or Zelensky [She is talking about the West]… They will continue to raise the stakes to the point where they will cause us pain. The territorial integrity of the Russian Federation will be in dispute, and not just the newly added territories. I have no doubt that they will do everything possible so that we worry about the safety of Moscow, or at least think seriously about it … This will certainly happen! “
Simonyan concluded: “This can only end with an immediate threat expressed and presented, the threat of a nuclear confrontation.” It said the West’s failure to comply with a list of demands presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2021 led to the invasion of Ukraine. Simonyan said that after Putin’s ultimatum was announced, she told her friends: “Guys, there will definitely be a big war. By the end of winter, something very big will happen!
She claimed that this time the West’s refusal to back down from its support for Ukraine would lead to even greater consequences: “It is true that no one will win a nuclear war, but who needs the world if Russia is not in it? Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin said it!” The RT chief concluded: “ I don’t see any other outcome.. It’ll be a wrecking ball! It’ll be everything! It’ll be like two planes, flying head-on to each other. Somebody’s going to have to step back and something tells me it won’t be us.”
Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee, followed up Simonyan’s tirade by boasting about the motherland’s nuclear power and absurdly claiming that Russia defeated the West in World War II, making NATO “afraid of World War III.” Resorting to hideous threats, Kartapolov addressed the West with a phrase taken from an old Soviet film: “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you when we cut your throat. We will cut only once and you are in heaven … Our victory will happen wherever the Russian soldier stops – and where he stops, he will not leave from there Start “.
Not everyone in the studio agreed with the idea that only bringing the planet to the brink of nuclear catastrophe would solve Russia’s quagmire in Ukraine. Political scientist Sergei Mikheev dismissed Simonyan’s scenario of a face-to-face confrontation, arguing that the art of diplomacy should not be reduced to that deplorable state. He called for disproportionate measures to achieve Russia’s goals. Solovyov got in his voice to soften the blow, and said to Mikheev: “Sergei Alexandrovich, we are just irresponsible journalists. We can afford to do this.” And Mikheev recklessly replied: “We are not journalists.”
Similarly, American Dmitry Drobnitsky derided Simonyan’s idea of ”head-to-head” confrontation accompanied by nuclear threats, arguing that such a strategy would repel existing Russian sympathizers such as India or China.
Even Satanovsky dismissed the simplistic thinking behind Simonyan’s narrative, telling her, “If the stakes are that we’ll cease to exist, we can’t limit ourselves to thinking they read what the chief said and believe it—no, Margarita, they don’t believe.” American soldiers to avoid destroying all of America was more doable. Not a single expert at the studio argued against Satanovsky’s apocalyptic proposal. Drobnitsky had only one exception: “In our country we have embraced one American whom we do not want to kill: it will be Tucker Carlson.”