The new year is off to a rocky start for Moscow, and even its most zealous propagandists struggled to put a positive spin on the unpleasant surprises this holiday season brought for the Kremlin.
While most of them were off the air until Jan. 11 for the holidays, the U.S. carried out a surprise operation in Venezuela and dramatically seized an oil tanker sailing under a Russian flag—both adding salt in the wound as the Kremlin’s bets in Ukraine peace talks don’t seem to be paying off, with U.S. President Donald Trump last week greenlighting a bipartisan sanctions bill.
Sergey Karnaukhov, the host of Karnaukhov’s Labyrinth on the Solovyov Live channel, complained that these events demonstrated Russia’s weakness and thus ruined the holiday season for many Russian citizens. He was especially aggrieved after having previously boasted about how effectively Russia would protect Nicolás Maduro, who wisely placed his trust in the Kremlin.
After the Venezuelan leader was extracted to the U.S., embarrassed Russian propagandists blamed him for his own capture and compared him to Syria’s Bashar Assad, claiming that if Russians had been granted more authority in Venezuela and Syria, everything would have turned out differently.
The string of humiliations on the international front pale in comparison to domestic troubles, however, with Russia’s flailing economy taking center stage. On Sunday, decorated state TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov abruptly abandoned his frequent praise of Trump. Instead, the host of Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov grimly concluded that Russia’s war against Ukraine will continue for a long time, and Moscow should be prepared to survive without relying mainly on its oil revenue
One day earlier, he had delivered a similar spiel on his channel Solovyov Live. He said the U.S. had weakened the economies of Iran and Venezuela through crippling sanctions and warned that Russia could face the same fate. “Our biggest task and our most important challenge is that Iran and Venezuela don’t happen here. It’s all about the economy. It ensures victory in war. It does not guarantee it, but you can’t win without it,” he told viewers.
“If we continue to remain in conditions of real stagnation—regardless of what [Central Bank governor] Ms. [Elvira] Nabiullina says—we will have colossal problems,” Solovyov added. “If we keep focusing solely on fighting inflation, they will do to us what we see them doing to Venezuela and Iran.”
