Russia’s ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine has so far failed to yield the goals set out by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his top propagandists are struggling to hide their growing sense of panic.
On Monday, head of RT Margarita Simonyan appeared on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov and admitted that the Kremlin’s collaborationist elite has concerns about the possibility of being tried for war crimes. After disingenuously claiming that neither the Russian leadership nor her fellow propagandists in the studio ever wanted to conduct strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, Simonyan said, “I am amazed by our people—and I unfortunately know many of them—including those in very high circles, who are afraid of this and are scared to call things by their proper names because of what people over there may think.”
Simonyan defiantly asserted: “We could spit on what they think over there! People who are afraid of the Hague—listen, you should be afraid to lose, to be humiliated and be afraid to betray your people. Let me tell you that if we manage to lose, the Hague—whether real or hypothetical—will come even for a street cleaner who is sweeping the cobblestones behind the Kremlin.”
In her rant, Simonyan contradicted her earlier claim of Russian forces not seeking to bomb civilian infrastructure and surmised that one more Kyiv district being left in the dark won’t change the potential of the future war crimes trials, or the “catastrophe” that will befall Russia if it loses its war against Ukraine.
Host Vladimir Solovyov immediately reverted to his old and tired routine of threatening nuclear strikes if things don’t go Russia’s way: “There won’t be any Hague if this happens, there won’t be anything at all. The whole world will be reduced to ashes.”