On the eve of President Putin’s self-proclaimed “annexation” of Ukraine’s regions, trouble was brewing in Russia — and everyone knew it. Anticipation reigned on social media that Ukrainian forces would recapture Lyman from the Russian invaders. The mood in Moscow was very different from the 2014 Crimean annexation celebrations. Crowds arriving in buses arriving at the rally half-heartedly chanted “Hurrah,” and Putin himself seemed to force a jubilant expression on his face. Sergey Mardan, host of the Saturday Mardan radio show, openly questioned the adequacy of organizing a celebratory concert at the same time as Russian troops fought, bled and retreated from Lyman of Ukraine.
Sunday night’s performance with RT boss Vladimir Solovyov Margarita Simonyan was so furious over Russia’s recent defeat in Ukraine that she admitted she didn’t even want to come to the show. Their recipe for boosting morale was simple: total disgrace and brutal punishment for those who dare disappoint fellow imperialists. Seething with anger, Simonyan recited: “Cowardice, willful abandonment of strategic positions without coordination with the high command, collapse of command and control of troops, inaction of power.” She qualified that these charges led to the execution of General Dmitry Pavlov, his deputy and other Western Front commanders during World War II.
Simonyan added: “We are terribly worried, terribly upset, I didn’t want to come here at all, because grief and panic would amount to helping the enemy and indirectly contributing to the success of the collective CIA, which has been working – and continuing its work – for decades away – to destroy our country. What else is there to say?” To cheer viewers up, Simonyan recalled the horrific scenes that unfolded during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, pointing out: “Our whole country laughed out loud… Of course, laughing wasn’t right because people were dying , but there was so much for us to mock [the West].”
Simonyan revealed her appeal within Russia’s power structure by noting that following her public complaints about serious issues plaguing ‘partial mobilisation’, a special meeting was arranged to allay her concerns: ‘We met with some generals what was a closed meeting , of course. I will – and have no right – to comment on it.” Simonyan assured the audience that problems with mobilization are a thing of the past, and then explained the series of Russia’s failures in Ukraine: “Just imagine the size of the territory and of the population concerned… This territory is three times the size of Belgium, where NATO Headquarters is located… Can we even imagine the magnitude of this task?”
She added sternly: “This area, three times the size of Belgium, is saturated with all kinds of weapons, all kinds of trainers, all the will, strength and power of the entire collective West. If anyone in the army doesn’t understand that, maybe we should revisit the first issue and replace those people.” Simonyan clarified that, unlike host Vladimir Solovyov, she was opposed to summary executions, but her repeated references to Stalin’s tactics pointed the way something else.
Simonyan, who predicted at the beginning of the invasion that it would be over in a few hours or days, now said: “Nobody knows how it will end or when, but we have no way back.” She ended her pep talk by saying she highlighted many Russian achievements that surpass the West, including Olympics and “the coolest COVID vaccine.” Simonyan claimed that when three of her children contracted COVID, only one in twenty people living in the same house was infected: an American language teacher — the only one not vaccinated with Sputnik V.
The RT boss admitted that when she sings the state anthem of the Russian Federation, which is set to the same music as the anthem of the former USSR, she uses the Soviet lyrics. Simonyan emphasized: “These words suit this moment. Comrades Generals, I beg of you: do not disgrace this anthem, our faith and our desperate desire to keep these people with us, keep these territories with us and return to normality as an even greater Russia.”
Not all state television experts share Simonyan’s passion, especially after the defeats on the Russian front. Last Friday, when Lyman’s imminent ouster was already expected, Russia’s former Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Fedorov warned on the Russian NTV show The Meeting Place that Ukraine could retaliate at some point in the future by not only attacking Russia’s border regions, but also big cities like Moscow.
During the same show, political editor Maxim Yusin noted bitterly that despite their testimonies on live television, all the experts privately share different attitudes: “They say ‘after the rest of the territories are liberated’. It is very difficult to argue with dreamers who live in their own world. I see the dynamics of military action on the frontlines…Ask anyone here if they’re in the makeup room. I think everyone will honestly admit that they don’t know whether mobilization will help us change the course of military action or not. It’s not going so well so far.”