Vladimir Putin knows that his Ukraine war isn’t going so well for Russia. In a sense, he has been in distraction mode by handing out fancy rings to heads of the former Soviet Republics, but that doesn’t change how Russians can’t even scrounge up some paper as their nation descends further into chaos where brands (including McDonald’s) have pulled out like crazy.
The actual war itself continues to be a morbid disaster in Ukraine. Russian troops are reportedly drunkenly shooting each other amid an absurdly huge loss of life, which Putin initially greeted by drafting hundreds of thousands more Russians even though he has admitted failing hard at even providing basic war supplies including ammo and medical treatments. Still, the propaganda train is attempting to go strong, and one of Putin’s biggest State TV cheerleaders is now suggesting that Russians change their view on death. For real, presenter Vladimir Solovyov (clearly a big Kremlin supporter) wants everyone to lay it all on the line. From The Daily Beast:
“Life is highly overrated,” the propagandist said in his program on state-run TV on Monday. “Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we’ll go to heaven. Death is the end of one earthly path and the beginning of another.”
He went on to question why people would let their fear of death “influence their decisions … It’s only worth living for something you can die for, that’s the way it should be.”.
That’s grim stuff. It does, tellingly, run counter to one of Putin’s recent public statements, which is that he’s not looking to draft more Russians anytime soon, so who knows if there’s a good-top/bad-cop type of intention, since we’re talking about State TV here. The Wall Street Journal does report that Putin’s New Year’s Eve address communicated that he’s still in it to win it, even as his Ukraine invasion approaches the one-year mark.
(Via The Daily Beast)