Russia’s new year is off to a rocky start, as its hopes and dreams are dashed by reality.
By Julia Davis, for CEPA
Just one month ago, Sergey Karnaukhov, who hosts the program Karnaukhov’s Labyrinth on the Solovyov Live channel, confidently boasted that the Kremlin fortified its Venezuelan Comrade, President Nicolás Maduro.
Using words he later came to regret, he said: “Maduro made the right decision: he started to rely on Russia . . . If it wasn’t for Russia, Venezuela would be on fire right now.”
Karnaukhov predicted that if there was any attempt by the United States to act against Venezuela, it would be able to sink all the American ships, using an array of Russian weapons. He added, “How did we do it? At some point in time, movies will be made about it, books will be written about it.”
In January, after an audacious US raid on Venezuela that ended with Maduro’s capture, Karnaukhov’s humility was restored. He meekly surmised: “If Russia stands in America’s way, it will crush us too.”
Head of RT Margarita Simonyan expressed jealousy about US capabilities, apparently referring to Russia’s multiple failed attempts to kidnap or assassinate the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in contrast to Maduro’s rapid extraction to the United States.
Appearing on a radio show, In More Detail, political scientist Alexander Kazakov advised the Russians to lean into the principles of the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza: “Do not weep; do not wax indignant.” Host Marat Bulatov chimed in and urged fellow Russian citizens to stop demanding a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to America’s recent actions. He said, “Don’t look for our president, since many are asking right now, ‘Where is the president of Russia? What happened?’.”
Bulatov correctly anticipated that Putin wouldn’t rush to say anything. Instead, in his televised remarks during the Orthodox Christmas celebrations, the Russian president inferred that his country’s invasion of a neighboring country is not merely a “special operation,” but a crusade directed by God. This reaffirmed that recurring statements by government-directed state media about a “holy war” are a state-approved propaganda narrative.
The events of the new year have sobered Russia’s regime mouthpieces. In December, the decorated state TV host Vladimir Solovyov was thrilled with the outcome of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and President Zelenskyy. He predicted that Ukraine would be sidelined and the US would ally with Russia against Europe.
Instead, the United States, with support from the British armed forces, seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic on January 7. The Marinera is described as part of a shadow fleet carrying oil for Venezuela, Russia, and Iran to circumvent US sanctions.
The state media outlet TASS reported demands from Russia’s Foreign Ministry directed at the United States: “Taking into account reports that there are Russian nationals among the crew, we demand the American side ensure proper and humane treatment of them, strictly observe their rights and interests, and put no obstacles for their soonest return to the Motherland.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the crew might be subject to prosecution in the US.
During his show on January 7, Karnaukhov noted: “The reaction in Russia to the arrest of our ship is very boisterous, especially among the experts. They are starting to demand harsh measures from the government. People say that everything starts with small things. If we respond solely with notes of protest, gesticulating with our hands and drawing our red lines that faded long ago, Americans will understand that everything is permissible.”
During his show Gasparyan on January 8, host Armen Gasparyan reported “mighty discontent” among his viewers over Venezuela and the ship seizure. They had been writing to the show in significant numbers to express their upset, and to complain that “Donald Trump failed to meet their expectations,” he said.
He said viewers were angry because some state propagandists (who he referred to as “certain fools”) had convinced them that the US-UK relationship was broken, something contradicted by the joint military operation to seize Marinera. According to Gasparyan, Russians believed “deteriorating relations between Buckingham Palace [sic] and Trump” were so severe that “this alliance was dead.”
Russia’s influential and extreme “Z-bloggers” were so disturbed by the latest turn of events that some asked whether the American president should be “allowed to physically live out the remainder of his term.”
In a post on Twitter/X, the ultra-nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin remarked: “The so-called [Ukraine] peace deal was impossible from the very beginning. It was a pure waste of time. Russia is now morally prepared for a radical, full-fledged war with the West”.
By Julia Davis, for CEPA
Julia Davis is a columnist for The Daily Beast and the creator of the Russian Media Monitor. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, and Women In Film.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications
