Russia’s premier economic event, the St. After Russia invaded Ukraine and was largely shunned by the international community, Western investors who had attended the event dubbed “Russian Davos” in previous years were conspicuously absent. Likewise, there will be no foreign moderators. This year’s SPIEF is moderated by Margarita Simonyaneditor-in-chief of controversial media channel RT (formerly known as Russia Today).
In early June, discussing Simonyan being cast in the role, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS: “The sanity of many well-known Western reporters is now being questioned… they are all simply nuts… Margarita [Simonyan] is a world-class reporter and media manager. So for us, she leaves journalists in the international dust, which is why she herself will be the moderator. ”
Fresh from the event, Simonyan appeared on Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, which talks about her recent meetings with Putin and tells a new fantasy about what Russia is said to be doing in Ukraine. The host, Vladimir Solovyov, asked Simonyan for the details of her meetings with the Russian dictator before and after the forum. She grinned and retorted: “Of course, I can’t tell all that publicly, I’ll whisper it in your ear later.”
Solovyov hinted that Simonyan may have personally offered some advice to Putin: “Based on recent observations, the president is open to receiving information from different levels … Decision-making centers Ours doesn’t work like the Olympic gods. They get information from everywhere: official sources, unofficial sources, war correspondents, people on site, this is very important.”
In the best tradition of Soviet and Korean propagandists, the head RT began his monologue by praising Putin’s excellent health, tireless stamina, unshakable confidence and cheerful personality.
She claims that the most frequently asked questions Russians often want her to ask the President of Russia are simple: the first is a tacit message of support, and the second reflects the people’s daily pleas to attack the “decision-making center” as soon as possible. Furiously clenching his hand, Simonyan exclaimed: “I also want to ask, why don’t we attack them? Where are those red lines? She recounted Putin’s reply: “I won’t say what red text they are, but they know them… I won’t name them due to military tactics: why are we giving them away? preview your cards?”
Simonyan stated that one of the reasons Putin didn’t carry out more intense bombing raids on major cities was a rather practical one: “He said, ‘Do we want to turn those cities into cities? Stalingrad it? “Indeed, our men are there! Those are our future cities! It is obvious… This is our land and people, which must later be restored.”
After her secret meetings with Putin, Simonyan – who for years promoted the idea of Russia’s armed intervention in neighboring countries – emerged with an entirely different repetition of the events being held. witnessed by the rest of the world. She completely denies that Russia is waging a war or even a special operation in Ukraine. Instead, Simonyan alleges, there is a civil war and Russia is simply siding with the Russians.
The head of RT has gone to great lengths to sell an unbelievable story, tied to genocide denial Ukrainians are a people, and outright dismissing the idea that they might be fighting to protect. Their homeland. Describing one of the videos of Ukrainian POWs that she recently watched, Simonyan said: “A surrendering soldier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was sitting down, his face was completely Russian, completely Russian. All Russians. None of you probably know who he is, he’s Russian. Big blue eyes, yellow hair and beard. He said, “I was mobilized for mandatory military service.” We should understand that, not all of them have free will.” Simonyan, who often claims that Russian troops are in Ukraine fighting for their Motherland, haphazardly denied that such a concept could apply to Ukrainians fighting on their soil.
Recounting the video with a captive prisoner, Simonyan asserted: “He didn’t even care where he lived. He has no military patriotic feelings that he is defending his Motherland. He fully understood that he was not defending any Fatherland, but the interests of others unrelated to his own. He couldn’t care less where he lives: in Donetsk, Belgorod or his village near Kyiv, where he is from. “
To those who fight against the Russian military or oppose Russian aggression, Simonyan notes: “There are a significant number of Nazis and fabricators who have nothing. have to do, other than getting them shot under the DPR luật [the supposed Donetsk People’s Republic]. ”
In addition to advocating the killing of Ukrainians who resisted Russian aggression, including POWs, Simonyan refused to acknowledge their existence as a people in any context other than being Russian or anti-Russian. “It is clear to anyone that there is no war between Russia and Ukraine,” she said. This is not even a special operation against the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is a civil war in Ukraine. Part of the Ukrainians, Russophobes and anti-Russians in the same sense, the fascists were opposed – in exactly the same way – destroying another part of their own people. Russia is simply supporting one side of those warring parties. Why is this present? That’s obvious, since they’re Russian. Those are our people. And over there, they are anti-Russians. That is all.”
Finding it impossible to successfully sell this absurd explanation to a Western audience, Simonyan speculates that in the event that Russian state media abroad continue to operate unabated, Americans and Europeans alike would believe that Russia’s alternative portrayal of pro-Ukrainian leaders’ aggression and electoral chances “would drop to, say, 20-30 percent approval rating all the way to no.” Simonyan sighed conjecture: “From their point of view, I understand how smart Europe and America are to get rid of them. RT and Sputnik. ”
