SERGEI SAVOSTYANOV via Getty Images during the annual TV show “Direct line with Vladimir Putin” recorded at the World Trade Center studio on June 30, 2021 in Moscow, Russia.
RUSSIA — Earlier this week, Russia warned of the “real” danger that the current conflict in Ukraine could escalate into World War III.
In the context of unprecedented tensions between Moscow and the West, the Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov warned of the risk of a new world war: “The danger is serious, it is real, it must not be underestimated”.
Since that powerful statement, Russian television has taken over, highlighting the possible use of nuclear weapons more than ever. For example, as the Challenges journalist Vincent Lamigeon announced on Twitter, the Russian public television channel Rossiya 1 published on Thursday 28 London or Berlin.
On the Russian public television Rossiya 1, we draw an infographic about the time it would take for a Russian Sarmat missile to reach Paris or London from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. For Paris 200 seconds pic.twitter.com/Dnw3wz4kO5
— Vincent Lamigeon (@VincentLamigeon) April 29, 2022
This very long-range next-generation missile, which Vladimir Putin recently described as “unprecedented,” said it would take about 3 minutes and 20 seconds to hit the French and English capitals and 1 minute and 45 seconds to hit the German capital reach the moderator.
During the same program, an analyst goes out of his way to explain to him “very seriously” that “one Sarmat missile and they’re settled, the British Isles are gone.”
“There is no longer a Sarmat and the United Kingdom,” shouts our expert. Another guest tries to mitigate: “Britain also has nuclear weapons. No one would survive this war.” But the hawk pursues his philippic
— Vincent Lamigeon (@VincentLamigeon) April 29, 2022
Russian television continues to threaten nuclear strikes against Western nations, desperate to stop them from continuing to help Ukraine. As an aside, this is the first state TV host who seems unwilling to die for the motherland and quarrels with a trigger-happy lawmaker. pic.twitter.com/PBvBP5V1lk
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 28, 2022
“Russian television continues to threaten western nations with nuclear strikes and desperately tries to dissuade them from continuing to help Ukraine. (…)”
The day before, it was journalist Margarita Simonian, at the helm of the news channel Russia Today – a medium banned in the European Union since February 27 – who caused a furore by declaring: “Either we lose in Ukraine or in the World War III begins”. “I think the possibility of a third world war is more realistic,” she concluded, as reported by BFMTV.
“The idea that everything will end in a nuclear attack seems like the most likely scenario, to my great dismay, but it is inevitable,” the pro-Kremlin journalist, who is considered one of the cantors of Russian propaganda, told TV .
“Admission of Weakness”
As TF1info explains, these statements by Russian journalists and analysts on public television, who unreservedly support an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the possibility of a new world war, have been frequent for several days. In programs and debates, some of which last three hours, the idea of using nuclear weapons is fearlessly raised and sometimes even presented as desirable – while during this time every statement by Vladimir Putin is scrutinized, while his army experiences severe disappointments in Ukraine.
“It is (…) a way of intimidating the West. Failing to achieve its military objectives in Ukraine, Russia is trying to prevent arms shipments that are radically altering the balance of power on the front lines,” Olivier Schmitt, study leader and professor at the Institut des Hautes National Defense Studies (IHEDN) , translates in L’Express . “The goal is to put pressure on Western leaders by increasing the risk of an escalation of public opinion.”
For Pierre Servent, a specialist in defense and military strategy, the recent threats from Moscow illustrate the difficulties facing Russian staffs. “I think that’s an admission of the weakness of the Kremlin structure,” he told France Inter on Wednesday. “If we look at the sequence over the 60 days, every time he (Vladimir Poutine, NDLR) takes a hard hit, wham, you have a statement about nuclear power, World War III…”
At the same time, the Russian media forwarded the television to gain the full support of the Russian people.
.@PierreServent “I think that the fact that Putin regularly makes a statement about nuclear power or a terrible ballistic test after hard times is more an admission of weakness on the part of the Kremlin structure.” #le79interpic.twitter.com/BSz7zmXWLX
– France Inter (@franceinter) April 27, 2022
See also on The HuffPost: Putin celebrated Orthodox Easter in Moscow without granting a ceasefire to Ukraine