In the absence of grateful topics and frontline successes, the Kremlin propaganda is once again bringing out the nuclear baton. But RT boss Margarita Simonyan swung it so much that the Kremlin had to put her in her place.
It was around a year ago when Vladimir Putin declared four Ukrainian regions his own in the gold-decorated halls of the Kremlin. The regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk would irretrievably and forever belong to Russia, announced the man who had ruled his empire for 23 years. But a year later, Moscow only has a fraction of these areas under its control. And so Russian state television decided to leave the celebrations in front of the red walls of the Kremlin on the occasion of the official annexation date unmentioned. In the end, even Putin found it unnecessary to personally appear in front of the crowd, which had gathered as usual. He left it with a short video message.
But what do you send instead? This is increasingly a tricky problem for Kremlin propaganda given the lack of success in Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Last week, the propagandists had no choice but to once again bring out the nuclear weapons in unison.
As is so often the case, the tone was set by none other than “Mister Radioactive Ash”. As far as the “degrading West” is concerned, there is no point in appealing to “the gray matter of its brain, which doesn’t really work,” said Dmitry Kiselyov in his “News of the Week” program. Russia has no choice but to turn to the most “primitive thing”: the fear of death in a “nuclear tornado.”
Kremlin propaganda is bringing out the nuclear weapon again
The man who is considered the Kremlin’s chief propagandist has had his nickname “Mister Radioactive Ash” since that evening in 2015 when he threatened to completely wipe out America. Now he once again lived up to his reputation. In his broadcast, he allowed the Russian political scientist Sergei Karaganov to speak, who considers a nuclear first strike to be a legitimate means of “winning the war.” “Our opponent must know about the uncompromising willingness of our government and our society to take this step in an emergency. We must restore it to those who have lost faith in hell,” explained Karaganov.
And Kiselyov agreed with him. “Technically we are absolutely ready for this.” The same view was also held by Mikhail Kovalchuk, primarily the brother of Yuri Kovalchuk, Putin’s “personal banker.” He called for a resumption of Russian nuclear weapons tests. “It would be enough to carry out a test on Novaya Zemlya. (…) At least once. And everything would be fine,” said the physicist and president of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”. Novaya Zemlya is a Russian double island located in the Arctic Ocean and is part of Europe.
Detonate a nuclear bomb over Siberia? For Simonjan the “most humane option”
The head of the Kremlin mouthpiece RT, Margarita Simonyan, also had an idea where a nuclear test could be carried out to scare the West. A “smart person” told her that nothing “terrible” would be expected if “we detonate an atomic bomb several hundred meters above sea level on our own territory, for example somewhere over Siberia,” the RT boss raved in her Video blog.
The Earth would then have to fear neither a nuclear winter nor deadly radiation. The failure of all radio systems and electronics is the only consequence of such a nuclear test. “All satellites would be affected, this camera that is currently recording me, this phone that is lying next to me. We will then return to the year 1993. (…) And I tell you: we lived wonderfully! I will even “Be happy! At least I won’t have to explain to my children anymore why everyone else has gadgets and they don’t! I forbid them,” laughed Simonjan.
The option of a nuclear test over one’s own territory is still the most “humane” thing possible. “I don’t see any other outcome that wouldn’t look something like this,” the propagandist concluded her remarks.
No anticipation in Siberia
But her idea of a nuclear experiment over Siberia does not elicit as much joy from everyone in Russia as Simonyan did – especially not from those in Siberia.
State Duma deputy Maria Prusakova demanded an apology from Simonyan. “Margarita, your statement that you are fundamentally considering the possibility of detonating a thermonuclear bomb over Siberia so that your children do not feel disadvantaged at school because they do not have gadgets, we Siberians find a deep insult. (. ..) You must apologize to the residents of all Siberia, especially to those who have suffered for decades from the consequences of the tests at the Semipalatinsk test site,” said deputy Prusakova.
“I strongly recommend that you discuss the issues where, as you yourself say, you are a stupid woman, in the kitchen and not in public spaces,” was the communist’s well-intentioned advice.
The mayor of Novosibirsk, Anatoli Lokot, as a trained physicist, also felt compelled to comment – . “There is nothing good about thermonuclear explosions in the air. The consequences can be felt not for hundreds, but even for thousands of years. Because unstable elements are created whose half-life is hundreds of years – for some even a thousand years.”
They incite, poison and hate
From the iron doll to the beaver-eater – these are the faces of Kremlin propaganda
“Violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation”
Nikolai Korolev, assistant to Moscow deputy Evgeny Stupin, became clearer: “Such statements constitute a violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation, not to mention the barbarism and absurdity of these statements. I have appealed to the Investigative Committee and the Interior Ministry able to analyze the statements of this citizen and ultimately hold her responsible under administrative or criminal law.”
Even among the otherwise divided Z-bloggers there is a unanimous opinion: Simonjan has gone too far. “Questions arise about their level of competence. If you see the Western press headline ‘Kremlin propagandist calls for nuclear drop over Siberia’ as a joke, then I don’t know what to do next… Maybe it’s time to go on vacation go?” wrote military blogger Alexander Kartawych.
And the journalist Anatoly Nesmiyan notes a striking fact: “Since 1963, there has been a ban (not a voluntary moratorium, but a ban, it is worth mentioning) on conducting nuclear tests, including in the air. This ban is enshrined in the Moscow Treaty, and Even today’s Kremlin has not yet taken the risk of canceling it. Either Simonyan is simply not aware of it, or she is deliberately provoking with her ludicrous proposal.”
Simonjan in her element: denial and lies
But Simonjan wouldn’t be Simonjan if she hadn’t long since lost her ability to understand. She prefers to practice what made her a star of Kremlin propaganda in Putin’s empire: denial and lies. “I filed a lawsuit against some deputy’s assistant who filed a lawsuit against me – for defamation. Because he not only reported me, but also wrote that I ‘proposed a nuclear strike on the territory of the Russian Federation'” , Simonyan wrote on the former Twitter.
If the words didn’t come from Simonjan, one could fear a severe case of memory loss.
But now even the Kremlin had to step in and put Simonyan in her place: “We have not canceled the nuclear test ban agreement. Simonyan does not work in official authorities, so her words do not reflect the official position of the Russian Federation,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The general of the Kremlin propaganda will have to swallow that first.
Also read:
“The German Life of Navalny”: How Kremlin propagandists invented a luxury villa
This man is too sharp for even the Kremlin’s most radical agitators – all of a sudden
Now Putin is sending a KGB combat psychic into battle
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
